Belgium arrests 15 terror suspects

8 June 2004

BRUSSELS – Fifteen men suspected of supporting international Islamic terror groups were arrested in Belgium on Tuesday, official sources have confirmed.

According to Belgian federal prosecutor Daniel Bernard, the men are all foreigners and come from countries including Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and the Palestinian authority inside Israel.

“They have been taken into custody and some of them will appear before an examining magistrate,” Bernard told a news conference.

However, the Belgian prosecutor did not immediately draw a link between the arrests and the March train bombings in Madrid, which left 191 people dead.

However, officials in Italy and Spain said on Tuesday that a number of people had been arrested in Belgium as part of a Europe wide terror swoop linked to the Madrid bombs.

Speaking at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Spanish Foreign Minister Antonio Alonso said there had been, “several people arrested in Belgium in relation to international terrorism.”

Earlier on Tuesday Italian news agency Ansa also said the Belgian arrests formed part of an EU-wide police swoop.

In the early hour of Tuesday morning, Italian police in Milan arrested two men including one who is believed to have helped organise the Madrid attacks.

Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as ‘Mohammad the Egyptian’, was the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the Spanish police after the March bombings.

Subject: Belgian news