Authorities identify one of two men being sought as Laachraoui, stopped while in a car with Salah Abdeslam last September

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Belgian prosecutors have named one of two men still sought in connection with the 13 November Paris attacks as they met with French counterparts following the arrest of the prime suspect, Salah Abdeslam, after four months on the run.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A man identified by Belgian prosecutors as Najim Laachraoui. Photograph: AFP / Belgian Police

Najim Laachraoui, 24, whose nationality has not been given, is reported to have travelled to Syria in 2013, and was previously identified by his alias Soufiane Kayal.

He was travelling with Abdeslam under his alias in September 2015 when their Mercedes was stopped at the Hungarian border with Austria. Also in the car was Mohammed Belkaid, who was shot dead by a police sniper in a raid in the Brussels suburb of Forest on Tuesday, an operation that led to Abdeslam’s capture a few days later.

Fresh footage of the capture was on Monday broadcast by the French news channel iTélé.

A second suspect has previously been named as Mohamed Abrini, 31, a Belgian national and childhood friend of Abdeslam in Brussels.

The identification of Laachraoui comes shortly before the French president, François Hollande, and his justice minister met families of the victims of the attacks at the Elysée Palace on Monday afternoon.

French officials and police and their Belgian counterparts are facing criticism over how they lost trace of Abdeslam in the hours after the attacks that left 130 dead.

Hollande will almost certainly face questions over why it took so long to find Abdeslam, a suspected member of the 10-man team that carried out the Paris attacks. He has allegedly told Belgian police he was supposed to blow himself up at the Stade de France football stadium on 13 November but backed out.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A photograph provided by Belgian police showing Mohamed Abrini. Photograph: AP

Abdeslam, 26, was captured in another Brussels suburb, Molenbeek, on Friday, one day after the funeral of his brother Braham, 31, who blew himself up at the Comptoir Voltaire cafe on 13 November, seriously injuring a waitress.

The Belgian foreign minister, Didier Reynders, said on Sunday that Abdeslam had told investigators he was planning an attack in Brussels.

The Belgian public prosecutor, Frédéric Van Leeuw, and his French counterpart, François Molins, addressed a press conference after their meeting on Monday but neither would reveal further details of the investigation.

“We are very far from completing the puzzle. There’s an enormous amount of information to be treated, demanding an enormous amount of work,” Van Leeuw said, adding that the two countries were cooperating legally and their investigative teams were exchanging information.

Molins said it could take up to three months for Abdeslam to be transferred to France. “There is a very strong expectation by the French justice system and the families of the victimes to see Abdeslam brought before a French judge,” Molins said.



Abdeslam is being held in isolation in a high-security prison in Bruges, Belgium, and is expected to appear before a judge on Wednesday when the court will order his continued detention. French media reported on Monday that he had been in hiding in Belgium for four months since leaving Paris late on 13 November.



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He is fighting extradition to France, but could be surrendered to Paris under the terms of a European arrest warrant. This could take up to 90 days.



Sven Mary, Abdeslam’s Belgian lawyer, said his client “is collaborating and is communicating”. “It will be interesting now to allow time so that I can speak to him and so the investigators can talk to him,” Mary added.

Mary is threatening to sue the French prosecutor for breaking investigation secrecy by revealing that Abdeslam had failed to carry out his suicide mission.

The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said there were 609 French nationals or residents in Syria and Iraq in territories controlled by Islamic State. Among them were 283 women and 18 minors.

