Brussels - Arab Today
A Moroccan man arrested in Brussels in July is being held in Austria, suspected of having links to the extremist cell responsible for the Paris attacks last November, a spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor told AFP on Monday.
The suspect, Abid Tabaouni, was detained under a European arrest warrant from Austria after he had fled from Salzburg and was handed back to Austrian authorities last month.
The Belgian prosecutor’s spokesman Thierry Werts, said that the handover was done quickly as “we confirmed that he did not have any ties to our country nor it appears to any of our cases.”
The Salzburg prosecutor’s spokesman Robert Holzleitner also confirmed to AFP that Tabaouni has been held in Austria since August 25 and is suspected of belonging to a terrorist organization.
Tabaouni is believed to have ties to the two alleged members of the Daesh group, Algerian Adel Haddadi and Pakistani Mohamad Usman, who were arrested in Austria last December and handed over to French authorities in July as part of the investigation into the Paris attacks.
Investigators believe Haddadi and Usman, who face terror charges in France, traveled to the Greek island of Leros on Oct. 3 on the same boat full of refugees as two men who took part in the Nov. 13 attacks in France that left 130 people dead.
But Haddadi and Usman were detained by Greek authorities for 25 days because they had fake Syrian passports.
Source: Arab News