Belgium Bombings Suspect Arrested

Mohamed Abrini has admitted being the ‘man in the hat’ who was filmed alongside two suicide bombers at Brussels airport, according to prosecutors.

The terror suspect confessed he was the man pictured on CCTV walking next to the pair who detonated their devices on 22 March, said the federal prosecution office.

It said in a statement: “After being confronted with the results of the different expert examinations, he confessed his presence at the crime scene.”

Prosecutors added that after leaving the airport, Abrini had thrown his light coat in a litter bin and later sold his hat.

He was pictured at the facility with bombers Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui in the departure hall before they blew themselves up, killing 16 people.

Abrini, 31, was arrested on Friday and is now among four people charged in Brussels with “participating in terrorist murders”.

Among them was Osama Krayem who is accused by prosecutors of being the second person at the attack on the Brussels metro station.

He was also allegedly at a shopping centre where the luggage used in the airport bombings was purchased.

Abrini’s DNA was found in the Schaerbeek flat where the other airport attackers had stayed before they detonated their bombs, say authorities.

He has also been linked to the Paris attacks, which killed 130 people last November.

Europol said Abrini was filmed two days before the Paris atrocities at a petrol station with another suspect, Salah Abdeslam, on the road to the French capital.

The car they drove was used two days later in the Paris attacks, in which Abdeslam’s elder brother was a suicide bomber.

Abdeslam was detained last month, a few days before the Brussels attacks, and is now awaiting extradition to France.