The raids are connected to the Paris suicide bombings.
Thursday morning, according to the federal prosecutor’s office series of raids were launched across Brussels aimed at suspects allegedly connected to one of the suicide bombers from the Paris attack – Bilal Hadf.
According to the spokesperson of the federal prosecutor, six home searches took place at different locations in the Belgian capital, including the areas of Molenbeek, Uccle, Jette and Brussels’ city center. Yet, nobody has been arrested.
Hadfi had been known to the Belgian authorities before the attacks, the spokesperson said.
“A case file was opened against him right at beginning of 2015 after Hadfi went to Syria”, adding that “Belgium issued an international arrest warrant when he left” but the authorities had “lost track of him until he was identified in Paris.”
The spokesperson said that in another home search that had been conducted in Brussels’ area of Laeken, a suspect was arrested and has being questioned by the police.
The raids occurred after the Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told the lawmakers that the country would take additional anti-terrorism measures as a result of the Paris attacks. The measures include the introduction of laws that allow the arrest of radicals returning from Syria and also an increase in the spendings on the security services with an additional €400 million.
The Prime Minister also defended Belgium’s efforts to fight terrorism, which have been criticized for being negligent in the aftermath of the Paris attacks. “I do not accept the criticisms which was aimed at denigrating the work of our security services,” Mr. Charles Michel said in the Belgian Parliament, according to Agence France-Presse.
Costas Ioannou
SouthFront