The arrest of terror suspect Salah Abdeslamresulted in authorities finding a large number of weapons, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said Sunday.
“He was ready to restart something in Brussels,” said Reynders, speaking at the German Marshall Fund’s Brussels Forum. “And it’s maybe the reality because we have found a lot of weapons, heavy weapons, in the first investigations and we have found a new network around him in Brussels.”
The investigation also showed more people were involved in the November 13 Paris attacks than first thought, he said.
“After the terror attacks in Paris, I said to one TV channel in the U.S. that we were searching for around 10 people with heavy weapons. We have far more than that since November, and not only in Belgium but also in France,” he said. ” … For the moment we have found more than 30 people involved in the terrorist attacks in Paris, but we are sure there are others.”
Investigators still need to track down and bring to justice the network that provided support to Abdeslam, the only surviving suspect alleged to have been directly involved in the November 13 Paris terror attacks, Belgium’s interior minister told CNN on Sunday.
Speaking in Brussels, Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon told CNN that Abdeslam’s dramatic capture Friday, following a four-month manhunt, was a major coup, but investigations were not over.
“I think it’s a big blow, because he is one of the most wanted foreign fighters in Europe. But I’m very aware the network is not cleared, so we have to continue the actions and continue the investigation,” he said.
His comments were reiterated by Belgian State Security Chief Jaak Raes, who told CNN Belgian affiliate VTM News on Sunday that it was “of the utmost importance that Abdeslam was captured alive, because we can now try to reconstruct the entire scenario.”
That was crucial in order “to see to what extent the intelligence services can learn lessons from the information that is gleaned,” he said.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins has said Abdeslam had a key role in planning the attacks.
Charged with participation in terrorist murder
Belgian federal prosecutors said in a statement Saturday that Abdeslam, a Belgium-born French citizen, had been charged with participation in a terrorist murder and with taking part in the activities of a terrorist organization.
Monir Ahmed Alaaj, also known as Amine Choukri — the other man wounded in a gunbattle during Friday’s raid in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek — faced the same charges.
Of the three others detained in the operation, one was charged with participating in a terror group’s activities and hiding criminals, and another with hiding criminals. The third was freed without being charged.
Jambon expressed surprise that Abdeslam, who is being held a high-security prison in Bruges, Belgium, had been found in Brussels, as authorities had believed that he might have left the country.
He said that investigators did not know whether Abdeslam had been in Belgium for the entire four months he was on the run, or whether he had traveled.
Jambon said he hoped that as a result of Abdeslam’s arrest, authorities would be able to piece together the facts of the preparations for the horrific attacks and identify the network of individuals involved.
“There has to be (a) network — also logistics network, also supporters — helping him, and this is something we have to look (at) closer,” he said.

Source:  CNN, 20 March 2016