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Belgium Charges Woman over Europe Terror Plot | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a metro station near the European Union headquarters in March 2016, killing 32 people (AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand)


Brussels- A Belgian woman has been charged with terrorism offences on suspicion she helped people plotting an attack in Europe, prosecutors in Brussels have said.

Identified as 24-year-old Molly B., the woman was arrested during an overnight raid earlier this week on a house in Flanders, the Flemish region in western Belgium, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Thursday.

It said the investigation was completely independent of the probes into the November 2015 attacks in Paris and the March 2016 bombings in Brussels.

“The investigation shows indications of assistance being provided by the woman to persons with the intention to commit an attack in Europe,” it said without naming any countries.

The woman from the Flemish city of Wevelgem was charged with “participation in the activities of a terrorist organization.”

No weapons or explosives were found in the raid.

The prosecutor’s office said it would release no further information in order to protect the investigation.

Over the weekend, Belgian police carried out a series of new raids in two cities, including the capital Brussels, as part of the investigation into terrorist activities, local media quoted the federal prosecutor’s office as saying.

According to the reports, no one was arrested during the raids but several people were taken for questioning and were later released.

Neither weapons, nor explosives were found during the raids, they said.

Belgium has remained on high alert since March 22 last year when three home-grown suicide bombers attacked Brussels airport and a metro station near EU headquarters, killing 32 people and wounding hundreds more.

On the first anniversary of the attacks, a peace festival is being organized in Brussels for the purpose of sending a message of coexistence.

Farid al-Samadi, who is organizing the event, which will include music concerts, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the festival aims at bringing viewpoints among different components of civil society closer.

The festival also seeks to counter attempts to link Islam with extremism and terrorism, sending a message of peace from the heart of the European capital, Samadi said.