Man who provided forged documents used in Paris, Brussels attacks nabbed

BRUSSELS — A Europe-wide hunt for suspects responsible for last Tuesday’s attacks in Belgium netted some gains, with the Italian police arresting a key suspect yesterday as investigators in several countries pursued leads in an intensifying effort to prevent Islamic State (IS) militants from carrying out additional attacks.

The Italian authorities announced yesterday that an Algerian man who was part of a counterfeiting ring that provided forged documents used in both the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks has been arrested in Italy.

The Belgian government issued a European arrest warrant for an Algerian man — whom the ANSA news agency identified as Djamal Eddine Ouali, 40 — on Jan 6, the Italian state police said. Ouali’s name emerged during searches carried out in October in the Saint-Gilles borough of Brussels, which yielded around 1,000 digital images used to make false identity documents.

ANSA reported that the forgery ring produced false documents used by three men: Mohamed Belkaid, who was killed in a police raid on March 15 in Brussels; Salah Abdeslam, the last surviving participant in the Paris attacks who was captured in Brussels on March 18; and Najim Laachraoui, one of two suicide attackers who struck Brussels Airport on Tuesday.

The Algerian man recently applied at his local immigration office for a residency permit, and a police check determined that he was wanted by the Belgians. He was arrested while walking on Saturday afternoon in Bellizzi, a town in the south-western Salerno Province.

Belgian press agency Belga said yesterday that prosecutors charged the man in connection with a raid in Paris last Thursday that the authorities say foiled an apparent attack plot. Belga named him as Abderamane A, who prosecutors had said on Saturday was being held after being shot during a raid in Schaerbeek district.

Belgian prosecutors had charged three men on Saturday, including Faycal C, whom Belgian media identified as Faycal Cheffou and said he was “the man in the hat”, as he has become known, in last Tuesday’s airport CCTV footage that showed three men pushing baggage trolleys bearing luggage. The two others in the picture are believed to have blown themselves up.

The Belgian prosecutor’s office also issued a news release yesterday saying that 13 searches had been carried out in the morning in French- and Flemish-speaking areas of Belgium. The release said the arrests were related to a terrorism case but did not say whether they were directly tied to Brussels attacks. Nine people were taken in for questioning, with five of them later released.

Germany was also playing a part in the investigation with the Federal Criminal Police Office among the European security agencies still hunting for at least eight mostly French or Belgian suspects, Die Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported. They are thought to be on the run in Syria or Europe.

As investigators in several countries pursued leads in an intensifying effort to prevent IS militants from carrying out additional attacks, Belgians quietly marked Easter. The streets in central Brussels were quiet, nearly empty, yesterday morning.

A “March Against Fear”, planned yesterday, was called off at the urging of the authorities, who worried that the police would be stretched too thin if they had to protect marchers while trying to guard the city.

Nevertheless, the police contained hundreds of people who gathered at the Place de la Bourse, which has become a focal point for expressions of sympathy.

Public broadcaster RTBF estimated the crowd at between 500 and 1,000 and said they were shouting slogans including “everyone together against the Islamic State”. AGENCIES