Mohamed Abrini, wanted over November’s Islamic State attacks in Paris, has been arrested in Brussels. He is ‘more than likely’ the ‘man in the hat’ seen on security camera footage at Brussels airport on March 22 with two suicide bombers, according to Belgium’s public broadcaster. (Belgian Federal Police/Reuters)
BRUSSELS—Two Paris police officials have confirmed that a key suspect in the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris has been arrested in Belgium.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the Belgian investigation, confirmed the arrest Friday of the last identified fugitive in the Paris attacks, Mohamed Abrini.
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said Friday it had made “several arrests” linked to the March 22 attacks, but did not name Abrini, who has never been called a suspect in the Brussels bloodshed.
Abrini’s suspected role in the Paris attacks has never been made clear. He was seen in the attack convoy en route to Paris in the days ahead of the bloodshed, but disappeared afterward.
One of the French police officials said Abrini is believed to be the man in the hat who was last seen leaving the Brussels airport after the double explosion there.
Belgian authorities made the announcement one day after they called on the public to help look for a key suspect who was involved in the bloodshed that killed 32 people.
Abrini is a 31-year-old Belgian petty criminal and is believed to have travelled early last summer to Syria where his younger brother died in 2014 in the Daesh group’s notorious francophone brigade. Daesh is also known as Islamic State or ISIS.
He had ties to Abdelhamid Abbaoud, the ringleader of the Paris attacks who died in a police standoff on Nov. 18.
