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Europe
Dutch warned Belgium about Brussels bombers days before attacks
2016-03-30
[FRANCE24] The Netherlands notified Belgium about the criminal backgrounds and suspected terrorist links of jacket wallahs Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui just five days before the Brussels attacks, the Dutch justice minister said Tuesday.

Answering questions in the Dutch parliament, Justice Minister Ard van der Steur said Dutch police had received an FBI report on March 16 "in which there was notification of Ibrahim El Bakraoui and his brother Khalid's criminal backgrounds and Khalid's terrorist background".

The next day "the issue came up during bilateral contact between the Dutch and Belgian police", said Van der Steur. "The radical background of both the brothers was discussed."

He also confirmed US media reports that Ibrahim was on a US terror list, saying he "was placed on an American surveillance list on September 25, 2015, a list made by the FBI terrorist screening centre".

Ibrahim El Bakraoui was one of two bombers who blew themselves up at Brussels airport on March 22. His brother Khalid went kaboom! at Maalbeek metro station.

Belgium's federal police service, however, denied that it had received any information from the FBI about the Bakraoui brothers.

There was "no mention of the message that the FBI sent to the Dutch police" in the meeting with Dutch authorities, it said. Instead they discussed a police raid in Brussels on March 15, in which an Algerian Death Eater with links to Gay Paree attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam was captured. Khalid El Bakraoui is believed to have rented the flat where the raid took place using a false name.

The Dutch minister's revelations come as Belgian authorities continued Tuesday to hunt for a bomb suspect who remains on the run, a week after the deadly blasts in the Belgian capital that killed 32.

Under pressure at home and abroad over an apparent series of missed clues about criminals linked to jihadist networks, the Belgian government has admitted mistakes were made.
An Nahar adds:
Adding to the recriminations, Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur said he regretted the release of the man identified by Belgian media as Faycal Cheffou, who claimed to be a freelance journalist. Hinting at suspicions that the man was a jihadist recruiter, he told French media: "There is a very thin line between an agitated radical and a radical recruiter, and in this case the judge probably didn't want to cross that line."

The man's lawyer Olivier Martins told RTBF television that his client was let go because he had an alibi.

"He gave an alibi based on telephone analysis which showed that he was at home at the time of the attacks," Martins was quoted as saying.
Posted by:Fred

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