The RTL INFO editorial team spoke to Anke Fransen, spokeswoman for Brussels Airport, who confirmed that a warning of an attack had indeed been received by e-mail. She also indicated that the federal police had carried out a “thorough” control of the aircraft, but that the warning had indeed been a false alarm.

RTL INFO has also noted that the flight was postponed, and only took off this Thursday morning.

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The message stated: “Bruselas (sic) will be attacked tomorrow at 6:00pm in Grand Place by a guy with a neon shirt,” and it was signed by “Abulah Hakimi”.

The screen is accessible by visitors of the European Parliament, who can leave messages upon their visit.

The Belgian police as well as European security have been notified. The surveillance cameras capturing all near-by areas of the European Parliament have been seized in order to identify the author of the message.

The OCAD and the Brussels’ public prosecutor are conducting an investigation as to determine the credibility of this threat.

The Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to us that « it is very rare that an attack announced in advance actually takes place ».

Menace d’attaque terroriste ce mercredi soir au centre de #Bruxelles.
C’est en tout cas le message inquiétant taggé hier sur le mur virtuel du Parlerment européen.
La police belge et les services de sécurité Européens ont été immédiatement avertis.#Alerte #Europe #Bruxelles pic.twitter.com/DWGYjCwfSS

— Emmanuel Foulon (@efoulon1) June 26, 2019

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The event began at 9am, in the presence of about fifty survivors of the attack and their loved ones. Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort, Mobility Minister Pascal Smet and the capital’s mayor Philippe Close were also present, as were several firefighters, policemen and representatives from the Red Cross.

The names of the 16 people who lost their lives in the Maelbeek attack can now be viewed by members of the public on the station’s wall right next Benoît Van Innis’ iconic artwork.

During the ceremony, two survivors spoke and shared their experiences. “We must fight for a more tolerant society,” one of them said during a poignant speech. Both thanked the emergency services for “their heroic efforts and deeds”.

The ceremony ended at 10am with a minute of silence. Rudi Vervoort and Philippe Close each placed a wreath at the foot of the wall in remembrance.

“It was important to be present to support the victims,” said the Brussels mayor after the ceremony had concluded. “Nothing could have been prepared the victims for what they had to face that day. We want to show that Brussels does not forget them.”

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They are Mohamed Abrini, Osama Krayem, Sofien Ayari, brothers Smaïl and Ibrahim Farisi, Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa, Bilal El Makhoukhi, Ali El Haddad Asufi, Youssef El Ajmi and Brahim Tabich. All have been indicted for helping to prepare and execute both attacks. Requisitions have also been ordered against Salah Abdeslam – well-known for his suspected involvement in the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks – although he has not yet been formally charged in connection with the bombings in Brussels.

Below are brief summaries of the current state of the investigation of four of the most high-profile of these suspects.

Mohamed Abrini – “the man in the hat”

On April 8, 2016, in Anderlecht, Belgian police arrested Mohamed Abrini, a man also sought by police for several months for his suspected involvement in the Paris attacks.

Abrini subsequently admitted that he was indeed “the man in the hat”, as he had become widely known after images of him surfaced on the internet in the immediate aftermath of the Brussels bombings. These images showed him at Brussels airport just minutes before the attacks took place, talking to the two airport suicide bombers, Najim Laachraoui and Ibrahim El Bakraoui.

Mohamed Abrini had left a suitcase full of explosives in the airport before fleeing, while Laachraoui and El Bakraoui detonated their charges in the departures hall. The three men had gone to the airport that morning by taxi from an apartment on rue Max Roos in Schaerbeek, where they had been lying low for the preceding few weeks in preparation for the attacks.

Osama Krayem

Osama Krayem, previously known as “Naim Al Hamed”, was also arrested on April 8, 2016. Krayem had been filmed at the Pétillon metro station on March 22, 2016, exchanging words with Khalid El Bakraoui, just before the latter blew himself up at Maelbeek metro station. Ossama Krayem said he was supposed to blow himself up as well, but changed his mind at the last minute.

Krayem then returned to an apartment on Avenue des Casernes in Etterbeek, where he had spent the last few days with Khalid El Bakraoui. According to his police confession, he then got rid of his explosive charges by flushing them down the toilet. Investigators have since found traces of explosive substance in the apartment’s pipe system.

Sofien Ayari and Salah Abdeslam

Sofien Ayari, also known by his aliases “Amine Choukri” and “Monir Ahmed Alaaj”, was arrested four days before the attacks in Brussels, on March 18, 2016. He was hiding in a building in the rue des Quarte Vents in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean with Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the Paris bombings, who by then had been sought by Belgian and French police for months.

The two men had narrowly escaped arrest three days earlier on rue du Dries in Forest, where they had been hiding in another apartment. It was on rue du Dries that a major firefight took place between them and the police, which led to the death of their friend and suspected co-conspirator, Mohamed Belkaïd, known by the pseudonym “Samir Bouzid”.

For their involvement in the firefight, Sofien Ayari and Salah Abdeslam were each sentenced on April 23 to 20 years in prison by the Criminal Court of Brussels. Subsequent investigation into the Brussels attacks showed that Sofien Ayari had probably been plotting the Paris attacks with Salah Abdeslam in Ulm (Germany) since at least October 2015, after leaving Syria. His fingerprints have also been found in various other suspected hiding places of their terrorist cell, including in Auvelais, Charleroi, Schaerbeek and Jette.

Upon his arrest, Sofien Ayari declared that he had not participated in any way in the terrorist attacks in Paris or Brussels. However, he admitted to having stayed in the apartment on rue du Dries in the weeks preceding the shooting, with Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Belkaïd.

Questions remain about Ayari and Abdeslam’s other possible attempted terrorist projects, especially in light of the fact that Sofien Ayari and Ossama Krayem took a bus from Brussels to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam on November 13, 2015, before returning only hours after arriving.

Furthermore, in a laptop found at an apartment near rue Max Roos in Schaerbeek, which was used as a hideout for the Brussels suicide bombers, was a file bearing the name “13 November”. It contained several other files named “Omar Group”, “French Group”, “Iraqi Group”, “Metro Group”, and, most interestingly, “Schipol Group”.

Were Sofien Ayari and Ossama Krayem part of the “Schipol Group”? More specifically, were they plotting an attack at the Dutch airport? Although suspicions undoubtedly remain, there is currently no hard evidence to substantiate any of these claims, according to a source close to those involved in the judicial investigation.

According to the same source, during his police interrogations Ossama Krayem admitted that his task at Schipol was to “find safes large enough to store weapons, explosives or money”. After arriving at Schipol, he “walked about two hours without finding any such safe before leaving”.

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“The examining magistrates have instructed the Accueil des Victimes service (“Victims’ Reception service”, a victim support group) to inform the plaintiffs about the possibility of consulting the dossier relating to the Brussels attacks of March 22, 2016,” the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement this week.

The procedure under which such a consultation will take place has been carefully planned, owing to the very large number of plaintiffs involved: 209 in the case of the Maelbeek metro bombings, and 391 in the case of the attacks at Zaventem airport.

It will run as follows. First, a request for consultation must be addressed to the examining magistrates through the Accueil des Victimes service. Second, plaintiffs must then complete and return an official authorisation request form within fifteen days. Finally, authorisation of access to the dossier will be issued by the examining magistrates, and will be valid for a period of ten working days, and extendable only upon request.

“This way of proceeding was agreed upon in view of the very large number of plaintiffs and the need to organize a program which allows each of them to consult the dossier under good conditions (with staff present to help, with a sufficient number of computers present, with psychological assistance readily available, etc.),” explained the Federal Prosecutor’s office.

The full dossier of the attacks fills about 140 boxes and comprises more than 6,200 written statements. Its central part, which consists of approximately 1,200 pages, will be available in nine languages and is currently being translated.

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Although OCAM (L’organe de coordination pour l’analyse de la menace, or “the coordination unit for threat analysis”) did not raise the terrorist threat level in Belgium following the attack, the police has nevertheless mobilised extra officers to ensure that mosques remain safe throughout the next few days.

In Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, police took the further step of setting up a special email address for leaders of the Muslim community to contact them if they feel threatened. A police presence will also be maintained around Molenbeek’s mosques and schools.

The attack in Christchurch claimed the lives of 50 people after a shooting in two separate mosques. Over thirty people were injured, with some remaining in a critical condition.

The suspected attacker, Australian 28 year old Brenton Tarrant, has been charged with murder by the New Zealand authorities.

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Several people have also been injured in the shooting, which took place at 10.45am local time near the 24 Oktoberplein junction.

The police reports that the gunman is still at large. The threat level has been temporarily raised to its maximum level across the city, with Dutch police claiming that the shooting “appears to have been a terrorist attack”.

Trains and most tram line services have been suspended, and schools have been requested to shut their doors. Mosques have also been closed across the city as a security precaution.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he was “deeply concerned” by the shooting, and has consequently cancelled his weekly coalition talks.

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The hard disk containing the autopsy reports of the victims of the terrorist attacks of March 22, 2016 was stolen last week in the building of the public prosecutor’s office of Brussels (Portalis). E.K.I., a 27-year-old suspect, was arrested and placed under arrest. He is scheduled to appear before the council on Wednesday. He denies the facts. The investigation has not yet found the stolen objects.

The thief appears to be Iliass Khayari, identified as a veteran of the war in Syria, according to a well-informed source. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison in 2016, half of which was suspended. Khayari claimed that he had beheaded a man in Syria, but he was not prosecuted for that.

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Life4Brussels, a Belgian association for victims of terrorist attacks, is at the initiative of the request. The names of the 16 people who died in the attack should be engraved in the station, but the format of this commemorative initiative has not been determined. It is a question of including the names on a plaque. At the Maelbeek station, a sign already contains citizens’ support messages, and two black and white frescoes were created by artist Benoît Van Innis.

On March 22, STIB posted the first names of the 16 victims on all the billboards of the station and at various points of its network. At Zaventem airport, a commemorative plaque was affixed in the departures hall.

A stela bearing the names of the victims of this attack has also been implanted nearby. In total, a dozen sites commemorate the victims of these two attacks perpetrated on March 22, 2016.

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The campaign was aired on Belgian, French, Dutch, English, German, Italian and Spanish digital platforms, as well as shown in display, on social networks as well as Youtube, where it reached a total of 427,14,262 views. The aim wasn’t just to restore Brussels’ image, it was also perceived as a way to show tourists how to personalize their visit based on their interests. As such, by using a digital platform they could design their personalized visit.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Two years ago, une journée qui a marqué la belgique #brusselslockdown

A post shared by Alessà (@alessandr0shiai) on Mar 23, 2018 at 1:20pm PDT

A survey conducted in these 7 countries, from March to April showed that the campaign had positive results as 9 out of 10 Europeans had a positive view of Brussels after the campaign. It is important to note that 8 out of 10 participants already had a positive image of Brussels even before the campaign. Among the respondents, 59% thought that Brussels is a culturally rich city, and this percentage stood at 51% before the campaign.

According to the survey, « Where will Brussels take you? » was a successful campaign, since 65% of the respondents though that it encouraged people to visit Brussels and 61% say that their interest on Brussels increased after being exposed to the campaign.

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