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Belgium Charges Two New Suspects over 2015 Paris Attacks | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Broken windows of the terminal at Brussels airport are seen during a ceremony following bomb attacks in Brussels in Zaventem, Belgium, March 23, 2016. REUTERS/Yorick Jansens/Pool


Belgian authorities have charged two people in connection with the November 2015 Paris attacks claimed by ISIS which left 130 people dead, prosecutors said Thursday.

The two — identified as Farid K. and Meryem E. B. — are “suspected to have provided Khalid El Bakraoui with the false documents later used in preparation for the Paris attacks,” prosecutors said in a statement.

Bakraoui blew himself up at a Brussels metro station while his brother Ibrahim and another suicide bomber attacked Brussels airport in twin attacks that killed 32 people on March 22 last year.

Some 20 people have been charged in Belgium in connection with the investigation into the Paris attacks. Investigators say the Paris and Brussels attacks were carried out by the same cell.

Farid K. has “been charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, falsification of documents and use of false documents,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Meryem E.B. “has been charged with falsification of documents and use of false documents,” it said.

Farid K. has been placed in police custody while Meryem E.B was released under “strict” conditions, the statement added.

Belgian police detained the man and the woman in a house search on Wednesday.

Seven attackers were killed the night of the Nov. 13, 2015 attacks in Paris and two others died in a police raid five days later. One key player — Salah Abdeslam — escaped and was arrested four months later in Belgium.

Other members of the network survived, plotting violence from Belgium and Syria or Iraq.