Terror alert stays as Belgium charges 4th suspect

Belgium has asked Morocco to share any intelligence it has to help track a key suspect in connection with the Paris attacks, the interior ministry in Rabat said Monday. 


A statement said King Philippe made the request in a telephone conversation with Morocco's King Mohamed VI, calling for "close cooperation" in the fields of "intelligence and security." 


Morocco's Interior Minister Mohamed Hassad and his Belgian counterpart Jan Jambon later discussed ways of "implementing concretely and immediately this request" which follows a similar one from Paris. 


Moroccan intelligence helped put French investigators on the trail of the Belgian jihadist suspected of orchestrating the November 13 terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. 


A Moroccan tip-off, along with other information, helped police track Abdelhamid Abaaoud -- a Belgian of Moroccan descent -- to an apartment block in a northern Paris suburb, where he was killed in a raid last Wednesday. 


Belgium is home to a large Moroccan community of about 500,000 people. 


Belgium has charged four people over the Paris assault, including two on suspicion of helping alleged Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam, a French citizen, with escaping to Brussels after the carnage. 


Just over a week later it emerged that Abdeslam's brother Brahim, 31, had blown himself up outside a cafe in Boulevard Voltaire during the Paris attacks. 


On Monday, a Belgian anti-terrorism judge charged a suspect with involvement in the Paris attacks, the federal prosecutor's office said, the fourth person to face charges in Belgium over the November 13 atrocities. 


The suspect was arrested in a series of police raids in Belgium on Sunday night along with 15 other people who were all released without charge, as authorities warned of a Paris-style plot facing Brussels. 


"The investigating judge specialized in terrorism cases placed into custody a man arrested during the operations of last night. He is charged with participating in activities of a terrorist group and with terrorist attack (Paris)," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. 


"After thorough interrogation by the federal judicial police, the remaining 15 persons were released by the investigating judge." 


Mohammed Amri, 27, and Hamza Attou, 20, were charged last Monday on suspicion of helping alleged Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam with escaping to Brussels after the November 13 carnage in which 130 people died. 


A third person who has not been publicly named was also charged with involvement in the Paris attacks on Friday and is reported to have helped Salah when he was dropped off in the Belgian capital. 


Brussels will remain under the highest level of alert for another week due to an ongoing terrorism threat, but schools and the underground train system will reopen from Wednesday, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Monday. 


"The crisis center decided to maintain the alert level four, which means the threat remains serious and imminent," Michel told a press conference, adding the threat level will be reviewed again next Monday. 


"We want to thank the people for their calm and understanding," he added. 


The army and police will continue to be deployed in force and the country will reduce the number of events with large crowds, for fear of a repeat of the Paris gun and suicide bomb attacks on November 13, Michel said. 


But he added his government was trying to bring the country "back to normal as quickly as possible" while working with the security services. 


It decided to reopen schools and the underground metro from Wednesday. 


"For schools, that means that in the coming hours, we will guarantee a level of security everywhere on the country's territory," the prime minister said. "As for the metro, the aim is to reopen the metro gradually, but starting on Wednesday." 


The rest of the country will remain on alert level three, which means an attack is considered possible and the threat credible. 


Brussels has been locked down since Saturday with armed police and troops patrolling quiet streets

Source: NNA