Two men, domiciled in the Paris region and “likely to be linked to the author of the attack” committed on October 16 in Brussels, were indicted by a Parisian investigating judge, AFP learned on Tuesday with the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office.
Indicted Monday
Presented to an investigating judge on Monday, they were indicted for criminal terrorist association and for complicity in assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise, then placed in pre-trial detention, added the Pnat.
Both Tunisians, they are aged in their forties and fifties, added sources close to the case. The man in his forties, who “has lived in France for almost twenty years”, “formally contests” the accusations, assured his council.
“He has nothing to do with the attack,” said Souleymen Rakrouki. The attacker “is a friend he had known for a long time, from whom he had not seen any sign of radicalization. He could never have imagined such an act,” he insisted.
An investigation opened in Paris following information transmitted by Belgian justice
When contacted, the fifty-year-old’s advisors, Pierre-Henri Baert and Louise Hennon, did not wish to comment. According to the Pnat, investigations “are continuing to clarify their links” with Abdesalem Lassoued, a radicalized 45-year-old Tunisian, who killed two Swedes when they came to support their national football team in Belgium.
The assailant, who had been the subject of an extradition request from Tunisia for more than a year, was shot dead on October 17 by Belgian police. In Paris, an investigation was opened on October 17, following information “transmitted by the Belgian judicial authorities”, said the Pnat.
Four people “likely to be linked to the author of the attack” were arrested Thursday in Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire and the Paris region, added Pnat. Of the four, two police custody was lifted.