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Third Man Is Charged in Belgium Over Foiled Plot in France Third Man Is Charged in Belgium Over Foiled Plot in France
(about 5 hours later)
A third man has been charged in Belgium in connection with what officials say was a foiled plot to stage a major terrorist attack in France. PARIS — A third man has been charged in Belgium in connection with a foiled plot to stage a major terrorist attack in France, officials said Saturday.
The man, a 33-year-old Belgian citizen identified only by his initials, Y. A., was charged on Friday with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, the federal prosecutor’s office in Brussels announced on Saturday. An investigative judge specializing in terrorism cases ordered that he be detained. Authorities across Europe have been conducting raids and arresting suspects since the March 22 bombings in Brussels that left 32 dead at Brussels Airport and a subway station.
Y. A. is the third person in Belgium to be charged as an accomplice of Reda Kriket, 34, a Frenchman who was arrested outside Paris on March 24. The man who was charged in connection with the thwarted plot was identified by the federal prosecutor’s office in Brussels only by his initials, Y.A., a 33-year-old Belgian citizen. He was preliminarily charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group. An investigative judge specializing in terrorism cases ordered that he be detained.
Belgian officials also announced that the airport would reopen on Sunday with limited service.
Arnaud Feist, the chief executive of Brussels Airport, said Saturday that the country had been through “the darkest days in the history of aviation in Belgium” and that the airport’s reopening was a “sign of hope.”
“As of tomorrow, Sunday, Brussels Airport should be partially operational,” Mr. Feist said at a news conference in a hotel near the airport, which is several miles northwest of Brussels, in the town of Zaventem. The airport had been closed since the attacks.
A police spokesman, Michaël Jonniaux, said there would be new security measures at the airport, including spot checks of vehicles and checks of people and baggage entering the airport terminal.
Y.A. is the third person in Belgium to be charged as an accomplice of Reda Kriket, 34, a Frenchman who was arrested outside Paris on March 24.
French officials say that Mr. Kriket had amassed an arsenal of weapons and bomb-making equipment — including the type of explosive material that was used by suicide bombers who attacked Paris on Nov. 13 and Brussels on March 22. He was charged on numerous counts, including terrorist conspiracy and possession of weapons.French officials say that Mr. Kriket had amassed an arsenal of weapons and bomb-making equipment — including the type of explosive material that was used by suicide bombers who attacked Paris on Nov. 13 and Brussels on March 22. He was charged on numerous counts, including terrorist conspiracy and possession of weapons.
Mr. Kriket’s arrest halted an “imminent” attack on France, according to the country’s interior minister and the public prosecutor in Paris.Mr. Kriket’s arrest halted an “imminent” attack on France, according to the country’s interior minister and the public prosecutor in Paris.
Two other people have been arrested and charged in Belgium with helping Mr. Kriket: Abderahmane Ameroud, 38, and a man identified only as Rabah M., 34, both Algerian citizens. They were arrested in Brussels on March 25. Another man accused of being an accomplice, Anis Bahri, a 32-year-old French citizen, was arrested by the Dutch police in the port city of Rotterdam on March 27 at the request of the French authorities. Two other people have been arrested and charged in Belgium with helping Mr. Kriket: Abderahmane Ameroud, 38, and a man identified only as Rabah M., 34, both Algerian citizens. They were arrested in Brussels on March 25. Another man accused of being an accomplice, Anis Bahri, a 32-year-old French citizen, was arrested by the Dutch police in the port city of Rotterdam last Sunday at the request of the French authorities.
Mr. Kriket was convicted in absentia last July alongside Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the man believed to be the organizer of the Paris attacks, in the same Belgian court case involving a jihadist recruitment network.
But the plot Mr. Kriket was allegedly involved in was not connected to the attacks in Brussels or in Paris, according to French officials.
While investigators have found several links between the Paris and Brussels attackers — including suspicions that they shared the same bomb maker, identified as Najim Laachraoui, who was one of the airport suicide bombers — no similar connections have been uncovered so far between Mr. Kriket or his accomplices and those attacks.