Belgian nationals on terrorist charges?

By Helen Warrell
Belgian prosecutors charged six people on Friday with membership of a terrorist group, following a police raids on the eve of a European Union summit in Brussels.
Lieve Pellens, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor, told the FT that all six were Belgian nationals and three of them, men aged between 20 and 30, had received training in Pakistan and Afghanistan. One of the trainees is suspected to have been preparing himself for a suicide attack on an unknown target.
The only woman to be charged was named as Malika El Aroud, a Belgian of Moroccan origin whose husband died in a suicide attack against anti-Taliban resistance leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud, in Afghanistan in 2001.
Belgian authorities carried out raids on sixteen houses in Brussels and one in the eastern city of Liege, on the basis of intelligence that the key suspect had received the ”green light” for an attack, the federal prosecutor confirmed.
”We felt confident that the planning was in the final stages – we believe that an attack was imminent,” Ms Pellens said, while emphasising that there was ”no indication” that the two-day EU summit had been the intended target. ”But since Brussels was hosting such an important event, we could not take any risks.”
According to the Bloomberg news agency, Yves Leterme, Belgian prime minister, told reporters at the summit earlier on Friday that organisers had considered calling off the event, but that it had proved unnecessary.
Seven of the 14 original detainees were brought in for questioning as witnesses, while the remaining seven were brought in front of an investigating judge on Thursday, Ms Pellens said.
The six who were charged are due to appear in a pre-trial court next week. The judge could release the suspects on bail after the hearing, but Belgian officials said they were confident there was enough evidence to keep the group in detention.