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Two Further Suspects Charged in Brussels Bombing Case | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Damage is seen inside the departure terminal following the March 22, 2016 bombing at Zaventem Airport.- Reuters.


Belgian authorities has charged on Tuesday a further two men with terrorist offences related to the Brussels bombings that killed 32 people.

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s office said the suspects, identified only as Smail F. and Ibrahim F., were charged over alleged links with renting an apartment in the Etterbeek area of Brussels thought to have been used as a hideout ahead of the Brussels attacks.

Police raided the suspected safe house, in the Avenue des Casernes in the Etterbeek district of Brussels district of Etterbeek, on Saturday, but found no weapons or explosives.

Prosecutors did not say when the two were detained. Under Belgian law, suspects usually need to appear before an examining judge within 24 hours.

“They are charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to commit terrorist murders, as a perpetrator, co-perpetrator or accomplice,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Belgian newspaper DH said the two men had been seen on security camera footage entering the house the day after the attacks and carrying out several bags. Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment on the DH report.

Four other suspects were picked up on Friday, including Mohamed Abrini, who investigators say has confessed to depositing a bomb at Brussels airport, and Osama Krayem, suspected of buying bags used by the bombers.

Abrini is also wanted in connection with November’s attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people.

Investigators have found extensive links between the Brussels and November Paris attacks, with many of the same people involved and linked to ISIS in Syria.

At the weekend, the authorities said they believed the Brussels cell originally planned to stage another attack in France but the arrest of key Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam on March 18, followed by a massive of police raids, caused them to switch and target Belgium.