Belgium Charges Ninth Person In Paris Attacks Investigation Police arrest Belgian national to face terror-related charges By Tom Fairless
http://www.wsj.com/articles/belgium-charges-ninth-person-in-paris-attacks-investigation-1450954883
BRUSSELS—Belgian authorities have charged a ninth person in connection with last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, as they continue to hunt for a key suspect in the atrocity, the federal prosecutor’s office said Thursday.
Abdoullah C., a Belgian national, was arrested in Brussels on Tuesday and charged by an investigating judge with terrorist murders and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization, the prosecutor said.
The man, born in 1985, is suspected of having had “several contacts” with Hasna Ait Boulahcen, niece of the ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Those contacts allegedly took place between the attacks and a subsequent police shootout in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, in which both Mr. Abaaoud and his niece died, the prosecutor’s office said.
Belgian authorities will decide later today whether to extend Abdoullah C.’s detention.
The latest arrest was the result of a house raid close to the Brussels district of Molenbeek, where at least three of the alleged Paris attackers lived, said Eric Van der Sypt, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor.
Belgian police previously searched two houses in Brussels on Sunday and detained five people, but all were subsequently released following an interrogation.
Belgian police have been searching for Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in the Nov. 13 atrocity who allegedly fled to Brussels after the attacks.
Belgian authorities have arrested three people they say drove Mr. Abdeslam out of Paris and in Brussels and three other suspects, who deny having any connection with Mr. Abdeslam. Mr. Abdeslam remains at large.
The authorities had raised a terror alert to its highest level for Brussels on Nov. 21, eight days after the Paris attacks, warning of the threat of imminent multiple attacks. The Belgian capital was effectively shut down for four days, with the metro, schools and many shops closed.
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