Following the Brussels attack happened late last month, leaving 32 people dead, authorities have released videos and photos showing another suspect of the terror attack on Thursday. The man appearing in the surveillance videos is suspected of smuggling in the bomb at Brussels Airport and Belgian prosecutors claim the man is still on the loose.
In the surveillance videos, however, the man is seen slowly walking from the airport and even asking people for directions. The suspect was filmed wearing a dark hat, a beige coat with dark pants and brown shoes, yet witnesses from the bombing attack have not been able to identify him.
Although the suspect’s identity remains a mystery for federal and Belgian prosecutors, his escape route was easily traced once the surveillance videos were released. The suspect went out of the airport and then walked calmly across the town of Zaventem, which is close by Brussels Airport.
He then took the main road as he walked into the city; the suspect is last seen walking in the Schaerbeek district over an hour after the terrorist attack had taken place. According to the investigators of the March 22 bombing attack, the man ditched his beige coat but kept the hat, which made easier for them to track his whereabouts.
After the terrorist attacks in Brussels that took place on March 22 and brought mayhem and a high death toll when the assailants detonated their bombs, seven suspects were identified and some are in custody in Belgium and France under the watch of European authorities. Yet the man showed on the footages released on Thursday escaped authorities, and even surveillance cameras, as well as he didn’t take his life in order to bomb the airport.
Getting rid off loose ends
Following the triple-bombing attacks happened at Brussels Airport and claimed by the Islamic State, the remaining suspects were held in custody while authorities continued to tighten its security as well as increased their efforts against the Islamic State group.
Information gathered by Belgian authorities however, has given sufficient reasons to believe the terrorist were after a much bigger target, Belgian nuclear plants. Among the other assailants involved in the Brussels’ terrorist attack perpetrated by the Islamic State group, Najim Laachraoui was identified as the second suicide bomber at the Belgian airport.
Najim was identified on Friday by forensic investigators; he was 25 and was Belgian as well. Also, French suspect Salah Abdeslam is currently held prisoner in a detention facility in Bruges while he waits for trial or to be extradited to France.
It’s worth noticing that Abdeslam had been Europe’s most wanted fugitive after an exhaustive manhunt for the suspect resulted in his capture. He was supposed to detonate the bomb as far back as November during the attacks in Paris, yet Salah didn’t follow through with the plans, said the magistrate assigned to his case. Still, his brother Ibrahim Abdeslam didn’t back down as he blew himself up at a café in Paris.
Nevertheless, Salah has claimed that his brother was the one who forced him to join the terrorist group, said Belgian Federal Police. Which provides Abdeslam with the benefit of the doubt in his court trial, as he declared he has helped on the attacks but has never followed through with it.
Source: Reuters