Brussels – Key Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini has admitted to being “the man in the hat” captured on CCTV footage at Brussels airport during the March 22 bombings, the Belgian prosecutor’s office revealed Saturday.
“We confronted him with the video evidence prepared by our special unit,” said a statement released by the federal prosecutors’ office Saturday. “He had to admit it was him.”
The statement went on to note that Abrini confessed to his presence at the crime scene and he explained to investigators that he had “thrown away his vest (jacket) in a garbage bin” and had “sold his hat afterward”.
The dramatic admission came days after Belgian authorities released new footage on Thursday showing the “man in the hat” leaving Brussels airport shortly after the attacks and walking into downtown Brussels where traces of him were finally lost. Along the way, the suspect shed his light jacket and was dressed in a white shirt.
Over the past few weeks, Belgian authorities have been frantically seeking “the man in the hat” ever since he was captured on CCTV footage alongside Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the Brussels airport departures lounge.
Abrini was arrested Friday in Brussels in a police raid. He was charged on Saturday with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murders.
Abrini’s admission underscored the links between the November 13 Paris attacks, which killed 130 people, and the March 22 Brussels attacks, which killed 32 people.
Abrini charged with ‘terrorist murders’
A 31-year-old Belgian national of Moroccan descent, Abrini was the last identified Paris attacks suspect still on the run before his arrest in Brussels on Friday. He was detained in Brussels along with five other suspects, two of whom were released after being questioned, Belgian authorities revealed Saturday.
Another suspect, identified only as Osama K., was also charged Saturday with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murders.
Osama K. has been identified as the second person seen on CCTV footage with the perpetrator before the attack on the Maelbeek subway station, according to a statement released by the Belgian prosecutor’s office earlier Saturday.
The suicide bomber at Maelbeek station has been identified as Khalid el-Bakraoui.
Friday’s arrests included Rwandan national Herve B.M. and Bilal E.M., both of whom were also charged with participating in a terrorist organisation and terrorist murders, Belgian authorities said.
Major success for Belgium
The latest arrests and admission were a major success for Belgian authorities, who have been accused for months of mishandling the investigation. Both the interior and justice ministers have offered to resign.
Abrini was known as a petty criminal before he was suspected of having travelled last summer to Syria, where his younger brother died in 2014 in the ISIS group’s notorious francophone brigade.
Belgian prosecutors said Abrini’s fingerprints and DNA were not only found in a Renault Clio used in the November 13 attacks in Paris but also in an apartment in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels used by the Brussels bombers.
Abrini went multiple times to Birmingham, England, last year, meeting with several men suspected of terrorist activity, a European security official told The Associated Press.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to provide details on the investigation. He said the meetings, including one later last summer, took place in several locations, including cafes and apartments.
Abrini had not resurfaced since the emergence of surveillance video placing him in the convoy with the attackers headed to Paris. He also had ties to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the Paris attacks who died in a police stand-off on November 18 and who was a childhood friend of brothers Salah and Brahim Abdeslam, both suspects in the Paris attacks.
Source: AP, AFP, FRANCE 24 and REUTERS, April 9