Belgium holds foiled French plot suspects for another week

Two suspects charged over their alleged involvement in a foiled French attack plot are to be held in custody in Belgium for another week, the federal prosecutor said Wednesday.

With Brussels reeling from deadly suicide bomb attacks on its airport and metro system, police shot the first suspect, Abderrahmane A., in the leg after a tense stand-off on Friday at a tram stop in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels.

He and Rabah M., both Algerian nationals, were charged at the weekend with being part of a terrorist group in connection with the arrest of terror suspect Reda Kriket near Paris last week.

The prosecutor said in a statement that the court hearing had been postponed until April 7 at the request of the men's lawyers but gave no other details.

Abderrahmane A., 38, and initially identified as Abderamane A. and Rabah M., 34, given first as Rabah N., were charged with "participation in a terrorist group" after French police found arms and explosives in a flat Kriket was using in a Paris suburb.

Their arrests highlighted the extensive links investigators are finding between French and Belgian Islamic State cells which carried out the Brussels attacks which left 32 people dead and the November Paris carnage in which 130 died.
Source: AFP