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, a self-styled journalist in his 30s whose older brother was shot and killed by Belgian police over a decade ago. Thought to be the “man in the hat” captured on CCTV at Brussels airport alongside bombers Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, Cheffou was one of several men detained in police raids on Thursday.

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.

Read More- The Guardian

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