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Surviving Suspect In Paris Terrorist Attacks Charged Over Brussels Bombings


A court artist drawing shows Salah Abdeslam in court during his trial in Brussels in February 2018.
A court artist drawing shows Salah Abdeslam in court during his trial in Brussels in February 2018.

The only surviving suspect in the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks that killed 130 people has been formally charged in connection with suicide bombings in Brussels that occurred several months later.

Federal prosecutors in Belgium on August 12 confirmed recent media reports that the suspect, Salah Abdeslam, has been charged with "participating in the activities of a terrorist group."

The prosecutor's office did not give details of Abdeslam's alleged role in the bombings at Brussels airport and a subway station on March 22, 2016 that killed 32 people and wounded 340 others.

The Islamic State (IS) extremist group claimed responsibility for both Brussels attacks.

Investigators have said the attacks were ordered from Syria and organized by a French-Belgian cell in Brussels.

That cell was also behind the November 13, 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds of others.

In April, a Belgian court sentenced Abdeslam to 20 years in prison over a gunbattle with police in Brussels that led to his capture days before the Brussels suicide bombings.

Abdeslam is a Belgian-born French national from the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek.

He is being held in jail in France ahead of a separate trial over the Paris attacks.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

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