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Salah Abdeslam, Suspect in Paris Attacks, Seeks Extradition to France Brussels Attack Lapses Acknowledged by Belgian Justice Minister
(about 3 hours later)
BRUSSELS — Salah Abdeslam, who was captured on Friday in Brussels and charged with terrorist murder over the Paris attacks in November, wants to be extradited to France, his lawyer said on Thursday. BRUSSELS — Belgium’s justice minister acknowledged Thursday that the authorities had erred by not acting on Turkey’s request last year that they take custody of a Belgian citizen arrested for suspected terrorist activity. The man was one of the Islamic State suicide bombers in the devastating Brussels attacks.
Mr. Abdeslam “wants to leave for France as quickly as possible,” the lawyer, Sven Mary, told reporters Thursday morning after a court hearing in Brussels. The acknowledgment by the justice minister, Koen Geens, was the first high-level Belgian admission of blunder in the aftermath of the attacks on Tuesday, which have exposed missteps by European security officials and police, just four months after the Islamic State’s assault on targets in Paris.
The decision by Mr. Abdeslam, 26, to accept extradition was a reversal of his position. He was Europe’s most wanted man until he was arrested on Friday in a raid in Molenbeek, the Brussels neighborhood where he grew up. He appears to be a crucial link between the Paris attacks and those that struck Brussels on Tuesday, killing at least 31 people and wounding about 300 others. “What’s essential in the story is that with the passing on of the information from Turkey and with the passing on of the information within Belgium, we have been slower than one could have expected under those circumstances,” Mr. Geens said on Flemish television in Belgium. “So, the information was passed on, but we have not been diligent, or probably not diligent enough.”
Both series of assaults were carried out by militants of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Both Mr. Geens and the interior minister, Jan Jambon, offered their resignations on Thursday, an implicit acknowledgment of responsibility for having failed to avert the bombings at the Brussels airport and a downtown subway station, which left 31 people dead and wounded 300. With Belgium at its maximum state of terrorist alert and numerous police raids underway, Prime Minister Charles Michel rejected the resignation offers.
After Mr. Abdeslam’s arrest, Mr. Mary had said his client intended to resist extradition to France. But questions proliferated about what law enforcement authorities did — and failed to do— to thwart the bombers, who appeared to be part of the same Islamic State network that carried out the Paris attacks last November.
Asked why Mr. Abdeslam had changed his mind, Mr. Mary said that his client understood that “the case here is just a small piece,” and that he wanted to “explain himself in France.” The most glaring lapse, which Turkey’s president first raised publicly on Wednesday, appeared to be Belgium’s inaction on a Turkish request last June that Belgium take custody of Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, who had been arrested in Turkey as a suspected terrorist for trying to enter Syria. Mr. el-Bakraoui was one of two brothers identified as being among the three suicide bombers in Brussels.
Mr. Abdeslam has not spoken to investigators since the bombings in Brussels. When Belgium did not act on the notification, Turkish officials said, they deported Mr. el-Bakraoui to the Netherlands at his request.
Mr. Geens at first reacted to Turkey’s assertion by justifying Belgium’s inaction, saying on Wednesday that the suspect was a common criminal not known for terrorism. But on Thursday he was more self-critical.
“There probably has not been a timely flow of information from Turkey to Belgium and from information inside Belgium,” the minister said.
The Brussels attacks came less than a week after the police in Belgium captured Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving participant in the Paris attacks last November that killed 130 people. Investigators have since linked him to some of the Brussels bombers. His lawyer, Sven Mary, told reporters at a court hearing in Brussels on Thursday that Mr. Abdeslam wanted to be extradited to France, reversing his earlier position.
Mr. Abdeslam was Europe’s most-wanted man until he was arrested on Friday in a raid in Molenbeek, the Brussels neighborhood where he grew up.
Asked why Mr. Abdeslam had changed his mind, Mr. Mary said that his client understood “the case here is just a small piece,” and that he wanted to “explain himself in France.” Mr. Abdeslam has not spoken to investigators since the bombings in Brussels.
Asked what his client had said about the attacks, Mr. Mary replied, “He didn’t say, because he didn’t know it.” Asked if Mr. Abdeslam had reacted to the attacks, Mr. Mary responded, “He had no reaction.”Asked what his client had said about the attacks, Mr. Mary replied, “He didn’t say, because he didn’t know it.” Asked if Mr. Abdeslam had reacted to the attacks, Mr. Mary responded, “He had no reaction.”
Belgian authorities are continuing to search for suspects in the Brussels attacks, and officials are scrambling to figure out what happened and why potential clues may have been missed. The Belgian interior minister, Jan Jambon, and the justice minister, Koen Geens, have offered to resign their posts, their spokesmen said, but Prime Minister Charles Michel has refused. The federal prosecutor in Belgium said on Thursday that a day earlier, investigators had searched the homes of the el-Bakraoui brothers. He also said that an arrest warrant had been issued for Khalid el-Bakraoui on Dec. 11 by the judge investigating the Paris attacks.
The federal prosecutor in Belgium said on Thursday that a day earlier, investigators had searched the homes of the brothers who carried out the bombings in Brussels. He also said that an arrest warrant had been issued for one of the brothers, Khalid el-Bakraoui, on Dec. 11, 2015, by the judge investigating the Paris attacks. “I wouldn’t want him to clam up,” Mr. Mary said. “His clamming up would make us face other Zaventems and other Bataclans.” He was referring to the Belgian airport that was bombed and to the Paris concert hall where 90 people were killed by gunmen on Nov. 13.
Khalid el-Bakraoui’s brother, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, was identified as a “foreign terrorist fighter” by the Turkish government last June, according to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey.
“Despite our warnings that this person was a foreign terrorist fighter,” Mr. Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish capital, on Wednesday, “the Belgian authorities could not identify a link to terrorism.”
It is becoming clear that there was evidence linking the brothers to Mr. Abdeslam and to the Paris attackers, and probably to the Islamic State.
“I wouldn’t want him to clam up,” Mr. Mary said. “His clamming up would make us face other Zaventems and other Bataclans,” he said, referring to the Belgian airport that was bombed and to the Paris concert hall where 90 people were killed by gunmen on Nov. 13.
Mr. Abdeslam and two others — Abid Aberkan, a relative who is accused of having sheltered him; and a man who is suspected of being an accomplice and whose identity is unclear — appeared in a Brussels court Thursday morning, but the hearing was postponed to April 7 at the request of their lawyers.Mr. Abdeslam and two others — Abid Aberkan, a relative who is accused of having sheltered him; and a man who is suspected of being an accomplice and whose identity is unclear — appeared in a Brussels court Thursday morning, but the hearing was postponed to April 7 at the request of their lawyers.
The man who is suspected of being an accomplice has used various aliases, including Amine Choukri, Monir Ahmed Alaaj and Soufien Ayari. He was arrested with Mr. Abdeslam last Friday in Molenbeek.The man who is suspected of being an accomplice has used various aliases, including Amine Choukri, Monir Ahmed Alaaj and Soufien Ayari. He was arrested with Mr. Abdeslam last Friday in Molenbeek.
Mr. Abdeslam’s arrest appeared to have set off an anxious response by Ibrahim el-Bakraoui.Mr. Abdeslam’s arrest appeared to have set off an anxious response by Ibrahim el-Bakraoui.
In a statement found on a computer that was discarded in a trash can, Mr. Bakraoui wrote that he was wanted, felt unsafe, did not know what to do and feared that if he dallied, he risked ending up “next to him in a cell,” the Belgian federal prosecutor, Frédéric Van Leeuw, said on Wednesday.In a statement found on a computer that was discarded in a trash can, Mr. Bakraoui wrote that he was wanted, felt unsafe, did not know what to do and feared that if he dallied, he risked ending up “next to him in a cell,” the Belgian federal prosecutor, Frédéric Van Leeuw, said on Wednesday.
He did not specify whether “him” referred to Mr. Abdeslam. He did not say whether “him” referred to Mr. Abdeslam.