Two suspects arrested in Spain have admitted being in Brussels airport at the time of the deadly March 2016 attack but deny involvement, a court spokesman said Thursday.
Mohamed Lamsalak and Youssef Ben Hammou were arrested earlier in the week as part of a joint investigation between Spanish and Belgian police. Officers seized firearms, drugs and cash in raids connected to the operation.
The two men “have admitted that they were at the airport when the bombs went off. They deny involvement in the attacks,” said a spokesman for the National Court, which specializes in terrorism cases.
Belgium has been on high alert since March 22 last year when suicide bombers attacked Zaventem airport and the Maalbeek metro station, killing 32 people and leaving more than 320 wounded.
The attacks were led by an ISIL Takfiri cell that was also responsible for the carnage in Paris in November 2015.
The spokesman said an inquiry had established that the men were in Brussels from March 16-23.
“They say that they went to Brussels to buy a car,” he said. “Investigators are working to determine if the money (intended for the purchase) was used to finance the attack or for any other motive”.
The men, who are charged with belonging to a terrorist organization, admitted that while in Brussels they visited the cousin of the two brothers who blew themselves up in the coordinated attack.
Investigators were looking into a document found on Hammou, a Google Maps print-out which showed the route from Germany to Brussels taken by Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the Takfiri group behind attacks in Paris which left 130 dead.
Hammou and Lamsalak both deny any connection to the Paris attacks.
The two suspects were among a group of nine people taken in for questioning in Barcelona and the northeastern region of Catalonia.
Source: AFP
