The only person arrested and charged with involvement in the Brussels attacks – man known as Faycal C – has been released on March 28 for lack of evidence.
Belgian media named him as Faycal Cheffou and said he was suspected of being the mystery third man seen in CCTV footage of the bombers.
Last week’s attacks on Brussels airport and the city’s metro system killed 35 people and injured more than 300.
The attacks were claimed by ISIS.
Police have blocked off a Brussels square, Place de la Bourse, which saw clashes between police and nationalist protesters on March 27.
People were allowed to stay in the square, where mourners have placed candles, wreaths and messages for victims of the bomb attacks.
Of the 35 victims, seven have still to be identified, the country’s crisis centre said on March 28.
At least 12 of the victims are foreign nationals from the US, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, the UK, Italy and China, it said earlier.
The death toll does not include three attackers, two of whom blew themselves up at the airport and one in the metro.
EU institutions based in Brussels will reopen on March 29, following the Easter break, “with important additional security measures in place”, European Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva said in a tweet.
The man referred to officially as Facyal C was released on March 28 after being arrested on March 24 in Brussels and charged with “participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murders”.
In a statement, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said: “The clues that led to the arrest of Faycal C were not substantiated by the ongoing inquiry.
“As a result, the subject has been released by the examining magistrate.”
Photo Reuters
He had been charged only two days before with “taking part in a terrorist group, terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder”.
Belgian public TV and Le Soir daily identified the freed man as Faycal Cheffou, a freelance journalist.
CCTV footage released by Belgian police on March 28 shows the two airport bombers alongside a third man, who is wearing light-colored clothing and a dark hat. Each is pushing a loaded luggage trolley.
Twin blasts struck the main terminal of Zaventem Airport. A third, even bigger, bomb was abandoned, prosecutors said at the time. It exploded after the security forces had secured the scene and nobody was hurt, they added.
The man in the hat is believed to have fled the scene.
Brussels was the second large-scale attack on an EU capital city claimed by ISIS, after gunmen and bombers killed 130 people in Paris on November 13.
In a bid to identify the third attacker at Brussels airport, whose bomb did not explode and who fled, Belgian police have released a new CCTV footage.
The attacker is seen wearing light-colored clothing and a hat.
The death toll from March 22 attacks in Brussels rose to 35 after four people died of their injuries in hospital.
More than 300 people were also injured in the attacks, which were claimed by ISIS.
The death toll does not include three attackers, two of whom blew themselves up at the airport and one in the metro.
Investigators have not commented on reports in the Belgian media that the third airport attacker is Faycal Cheffou, a freelance journalist arrested on March 24 outside the prosecutor’s office.
On March 26, a man named Faycal C was charged with “participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murders”, a prosecutor’s statement said.
Separately, three men were charged on March 28 with belonging to a terrorist group.
The three, whose names were given as Yassine A, Mohamed B and Aboubaker O, were arrested during raids on 13 addresses on March 27. A fourth man was released without charge.
Belgian Health Minister Maggie De Block announced the latest deaths in a tweet: “Four patients deceased in hospital. Medical teams did all possible. Total victims: 35. Courage to all the families.”
Of the 35 victims, seven have still to be identified, the Belgian crisis center said on March 28.
At least 12 of the victims are foreign nationals from the US, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, the UK, Italy and China, it said earlier.
More arrests have also taken place in relation to what authorities say were planned attacks on France.
A man already in Belgian custody was reported to have been charged in connection with a foiled attack in the Paris region.
Separately, Dutch police announced on March 27 that they had detained a 32-year-old Frenchman in Rotterdam at the request of French authorities.
The man was arrested on suspicion of preparing an attack in France and will be extradited to the country. Three other people were also detained.
The Frenchman is allegedly linked to Reda Kriket, who was arrested in a Paris suburb on March 24 and said to be in the “advanced stage” of plotting an attack, AFP news agency reported, citing a police source.
A man has been charged with terrorist offences, in connection with March 22 attacks in Brussels that left 31 dead, including three bombers, Belgian prosecutors say.
The man was named as Faycal Cheffou and was arrested on March 24.
At least half the victims died at the airport, the rest in an attack on the metro in suicide bombings claimed by ISIS.
Meanwhile a demonstration against the attacks, planned for March 27 in central Brussels, has been canceled after a request from the authorities.
Organizers said people’s security was a top priority.
Belgian prosecutors said that Faycal C had been detained outside the prosecutor’s office in Brussels on March 24. A search of his home had found no weapons.
Faycal C was charged with “participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murders,” a statement said.
It gave no further details and made no comment on Belgian media reports that he was the third man in an airport CCTV image that showed the two suicide bombers – Najim Laachraoui on the left, and Brahim el-Bakraoui. Belgian media say the third man is Faycal Cheffou, a freelance journalist.
The third man, wearing a hat and pale jacket, also had luggage packed with explosives. However, he was said to have fled without detonating his device. It was detonated in a controlled explosion once the departures hall was cleared.
Brahim el-Bakraoui’s brother Khalid carried out the Maelbeek metro attack.
Faycal C was among 12 people arrested on March 24 and 25 in police raids in Belgium, France and Germany.
Four days before the Brussels attacks, the key suspect in the November 13 Paris attacks which killed 130 people, Salah Abdeslam, was detained in a raid in Brussels. Police said he was initially co-operative.
Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens later confirmed in parliament that Salah Abdeslam “no longer wants to talk since attacks” in Brussels.
Separately, Brussels airport authorities said the “investigative work related to the judicial inquiry into the airport terminal has been completed” but that passenger activity could not resume before March 22.
Airport engineers and technicians are getting access to the terminal for the first time since the attack.
They will assess the damage and stability of the building. The airport authorities will also put new security measures in place.
The check-in area suffered severe damage when two blasts seconds apart hit opposite ends of the departures hall.
In addition to the dead, 340 people were injured. One hundred and one remain in hospital, of whom 62 are in intensive care.
In his weekly address on March 26, President Barack Obama paid his respects to the victims and said attempts to stigmatize Muslim-Americans should be rejected.
Meanwhile, Mariah Carey has canceled a concert scheduled for Brussels on March 27, citing security concerns.
In a separate development, Belgian prosecutors denied the murder of a security official at the Fleurus nuclear research centre was a terrorist act, the Belga news agency reported.
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