Belgian authorities on Monday charged three people detained during Sunday’s raids with participating in terrorist activities, according to state media and the Associated Press.
Prosecutors ordered the three — identified as Yassine A., Mohamed B. and Aboubaker O.– be held on terror-related charges, according to broadcaster RTBF.
The authorities said the trio were part of a group of nine people who were rounded up Sunday during a series of raids across Belgium. Five of them were released later Sunday, and authorities said Monday the sixth remaining detainee was released without charge, RTBF reported.
Also Monday, Belgian health minister Maggie De Block said four of those wounded in last week’s attacks have died at the hospital, bringing the number of dead to 35.
Raids have occurred almost daily since last week’s suicide bombings at Brussels’ main airport and a subway station near the headquarters of the European Union. At least four Americans died in the attacks. .
The Brussels Airport remains closed. Eight hundred staff members are due to test the temporary infrastructure and passenger check-in system Tuesday to determine whether the airport can partially reopen. Belgian government officials must approve the new passenger service arrangements.
“The simple fact is that a restart in the short term is not possible in the devastated infrastructure,” the airport staff said in a news release on the airport’s website.
Before the bombings, Brussels Airport served some 600 flights a day and 23.5 million passengers per year.
Meanwhile, the website of Belgium’s Federal Police on Monday began carrying a 32-second video of a mysterious man in a hat suspected of having taking part in the airport bombing, according to the AP.
“The police are seeking to identify this man,” the site says.
The implication is that the suspected accomplice of the two airport suicide bombers could still be at large. Last week, Belgian media reported that Faycal Cheffou — reported to be the man identified by authorities as Faycal C. who is in custody and has been charged with terror offenses — had been identified as the suspect who escaped from Brussels Airport following the bombing.
The video shows the man, wearing glasses and a white jacket, wheeling a baggage cart through the airport along with the two men identified by Belgian authorities as the bombers.
Police did not say why they had released the video.
SOURCE: Steph Solis
USA TODAY
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