All but three were released on Saturday evening. 12 suspected terrorists were taken into custody in the early hours of Saturday morning, the federal Prosecutor’s office said in a press release.“No weapons or explosives have been found” yet, he added.
The three persons placed under arrest are Samir C, 27, Mustafa B., 40, and Jawa B., 29, all with Belgian nationality. They have been charged with attempted murder in a terrorist context and participation in the activities of a terrorist group.
“Several dozen” houses all over Belgium were searched early on Saturday, as part of an investigation into terrorism. These houses were mainly in the Brussels region, the federal Prosecutor’s office said. The majority of the houses are in the Brussels, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Schaerbeek, Antwerp, Koekelberg, Berche-Sainte-Agathe, Evere, Forest, Watermael-Boitsfort, Ganshoren, Zaventem, Ninove, Wemmel, Fleurus, Tubize and Liège regions. 152 storage boxes were also searched.
40 people were arrested, and 12 were remanded in custody. The judge is expected to decide whether they will remain in custody later today.
There were no incidents during the searches, the Prosecutor’s office said. “No weapons or explosives were found”, but “what we found during the inquiry meant we had to act immediately”, he explained.
The federal Prosecutor’s office did first not want to reveal the name of the suspects or what they found. They didn’t want to reveal any other details of the ongoing inquiry.
(Source: Belga)
