28-04-2024 07:27 AM Jerusalem Timing

Belgian Prosecutor: No Link between Greece Arrests and Belgium Militants

Belgian Prosecutor: No Link between Greece Arrests and Belgium Militants

No link has been established between at least four people arrested by Greek anti-terrorism police and a militant cell broken up this week in Belgium

No link has been established between at least four people arrested by Greek anti-terrorism police and a militant cell broken up this week in Belgium, the Belgian prosecutor's office said Sunday.
 
police"There is no connection between these people and the enquiry" in Belgium, Eric Van Der Sypt, spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office, said. A Greek police source said investigators had sent DNA evidence and fingerprints to Belgium to establish whether Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the 27-year-old suspected mastermind of the Belgian cell, was among the four suspects.
  
Belgian authorities say the group targeted in a police raid Thursday in the eastern town of Verviers, in which two suspects were killed, was plotting to kill Belgian police officers.
  
The federal prosecutor's office has refused to comment on local media reports that Abaaoud, a Belgian national of Moroccan origin, planned the foiled attacks from Greece or Turkey.
  
The reports say he made calls from Greece to the brother of one of the two suspects killed in the shootout with police in Verviers.
  
According to Belgian media, Abaaoud spent time fighting alongside the “Islamic State group” in Syria. He was already known to security forces after appearing in an ISIL video, at the wheel of a car transporting mutilated bodies to a mass grave.

Thirteen people were arrested across Belgium in connection with the Verviers cell, five of whom were later charged with "participating in the activities of a terrorist group."