BRUSSELS - Belgian-Moroccan Mohamed Abrini has been charged with "participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murders" over the November 13 Paris massacres, Belgian prosecutors said Saturday.
But "it was not possible yet to confirm that Mohamed Abrini indeed was the third suspect", the so-called "man in the hat" seen with the two suicide bombers at Brussels airport on March 22, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. Moreover, a sixth person was arrested during raids Friday over the Brussels airport and metro bombings which netted top Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini, the Belgian prosecutor's office said.
The prosecutor had said Friday that five people had been been arrested but a spokesman confirmed Saturday that a sixth was being held. He declined to give any details about the sixth arrest.
A statement is expected later Saturday. Abrini's arrest Friday in the gritty Brussels neighbourhood of Anderlecht marked an important step forward in the investigation into the November 13 Paris attacks in which 130 died and the March 22 attacks which left 32 dead in Brussels.
Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State jihadi group based in Iraq and Syria. Abrini, a Belgian of Moroccan origin, was seen at a petrol station north of Paris two days before the attacks with Salah Abdeslam, who drove one of the vehicles used in the November 13 attacks.