Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam | Belgian Federal Police/EPA Mechelen police chief personally intervened to stop Salah Abdeslam tip: Belgian media Yves Bogaerts allegedly failed to pass on tip from radicalization expert.

Yves Bogaerts, the Mechelen chief of police, personally intervened to stop information being entered into a national terrorism database that could have led to the capture of Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam in December, according to local media.

A former employee of the police department, a radicalization expert identified as "X," tipped off the Mechelen police about a relative of Abdeslam who he feared had become radicalized. That relative was Abid Aberkan, who was hiding Abdeslam at his Rue des Quatre-Vents, Molenbeek, apartment.

But Bogaerts deemed the information "unreliable" and personally intervened to stop it from being entered into the national terrorism database, the Gazet van Antwerpen reports. The paper quotes an unnamed colleague of the men, who claims Bogaerts did so because he "could not stand X."

Bogaerts had previously denied the Mechelen police had held back the information on purpose and claimed a member of his team had simply made a "mistake."

“Unfortunately, a mistake has been made within my team,” Bogaerts said at a press conference in March. “(A) colleague … forgot to pass on the information of the dossier.”

“No information was deliberately withheld,” he added.

Abdeslam fled Paris after the November 13 attacks and was arrested in Brussels four days before the March 22 Belgian bombings. His arrest followed a months-long manhunt by international security forces.

An independent police watchdog appointed by the Belgian federal parliament, known as Comité P, is investigating the Mechelen police department's failure to pass on the tip about Abdeslam's suspected hide-out for three months.

POLITICO could not reach the Mechelen police for comment. The Gazet van Antwerpen says Bogaerts declined to comment until Comité P concludes its investigation.