Self-styled journalist had recorded video in which he complained about treatment of Muslims in centre for asylum seekers



Belgian prosecutors have charged a man identified as Fayçal Cheffou with playing a core role in the suicide bomb attacks on Brussels airport and metro that killed 31 people and injured 340.

The suspect was officially identified as Faycal C but named by sources close to the inquiry as Cheffou. He had once described himself as a an independent journalist but it was not certain if he had ever in fact worked as a journalist. Belgian authorities did not confirm whether he was the “man in the hat” captured on CCTV at Brussels airport alongside bombers Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui. Belgian media reported that his elder brother had been shot and killed by police over a decade ago.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An image from a video posted on YouTube in 2014 shows Fayçal Cheffou, one of the main suspects of the Brussels attacks. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images/YouTube

Cheffou faces charges of participation in a terrorist group, terrorist killings and attempted terrorist killings. The mayor of Brussels, Yvan Mayeur, told Le Soir newspaper that Cheffou had been detained several times at a park, where he sought to encourage asylum seekers camped there to turn to radical extremism. Cheffou was “dangerous”, the mayor said, and had been banned from the park.

He was being followed in a car by police when he was arrested on Thursday night outside the federal prosecutor’s office with two other people.

Asked if he was the suspected third bomber a source close to the inquiry told AFP: “That is a hypothesis the investigators are working on.”

Cheffou recorded a video in 2014 in which he complained about the treatment of Muslims detained in a centre for asylum seekers in the town of Steenokkerzeel, a Flemish province north-west of Brussels that borders the airport. The video contained complaints that Muslim detainees who observed daytime fasts during Ramadan were denied meals after sunset.

A description beneath the video, posted on a YouTube channel the name of which translates as “The Oppressed”, said “fundamental freedoms” were being violated, adding: “Belgian Muslims must act urgently to stop the abuses.”

News reports in the Belgium media from 2005 also named Cheffou as a presenter working on Radio Contact-Inter, a radio station for the north African community in Belgium. He was quoted complaining that other radio stations were interfering with their transmissions by broadcasting on the same frequency.

Belgian newspaper La Capitale reported that in 2002 Cheffou’s brother Karim was shot dead by Schaerbeek police while they attempted to arrest him. Karim Cheffou was wanted for several robberies, and a search of his home revealed a Kalashnikov and a bag full of grenades.

A second man, Aboubakar A, arrested separately on Thursday night in a car in Brussels, has also been charged with participating in terrorist activities. A man who was shot and arrested at a tram stop in Schaerbeek, Brussels, on Friday is being held for a further 24 hours of questioning.

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As the painstaking task of identifying the victims continued, officials said 24 of those killed had now been formally identified, 11 of whom were foreign nationals. Of the 340 people injured, 62 were still in intensive care.

A missing Tennessee couple have been identified as victims in the airport attack. Justin Shults, 30, and his wife Stephanie, had not been seen since Tuesday. Mr Shults’s employer, Clarcor, said in a post on its website that he died in the bombing. While she had been reported as missing, Mrs Shults’s employer, Mars, confirmed that she also died.

The couple had been dropping Stephanie’s mother off at the airport and were watching her walk through security when the bombs went off, a family member said. Shults’s brother, Levi Sutton, wrote on social media that his brother “travelled the world, leaving each destination better than when he arrived”.

The interior minister and mayor have asked Brussels residents to delay a planned memorial and mourning “march against fear” through the city centre, saying police needed to concentrate on the investigations, as a string of raids and arrests continued.

“Let us allow the security services to do their work and that the march, which we too want to take part in, be delayed for several weeks,” Mayeur told a press conference.

The fast-moving investigation has uncovered links to the Paris attacks of last November and triggered arrests across Belgium and in Germany and France, suggesting the bombs were the work of a large international network.

Belgian police also made arrests on Friday relating to an alleged foiled plot in France after explosives were found in Argenteuil on the edge of Paris. One man, named as Rabah N, has been charged in relation to the Paris investigation.

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Barack Obama told Belgians in his weekly radio and internet address that Americans have “their back” in the fight against terrorism and that US officials are working with allies to root out Islamic State operations in Europe. He said US officials had increased intelligence cooperation and the FBI had sent agents to help with the investigation and offered prayers for the families of two Americans killed.

Brussels is still reeling from the bloodshed and revelations of the extent of the network behind the attacks. The airport is expected to be closed until at least Monday for repairs and new security measures.

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No details were provided as to what these measures would involve but, in the aftermath of the attack, it has faced criticism that security had been light with no systematic checks on passengers entering the departure hall.

The Easter weekend is normally one of the busiest of the year, with thousands of holidaymakers jetting off from Brussels to destinations worldwide. Airlines have moved operations to regional airports or even to neighbouring countries. Ryanair moved its Brussels flights to its base at Charleroi, about an hour’s drive south of the Belgian capital.