The chief suspect in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, is facing a hearing in Brussels today morning after his arrest last week in the Belgian capital. Belgian authorities have charged him with terror offenses, and French authorities are seeking his extradition.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels and Paris, which have laid bare European security failings and prompted calls for better intelligence cooperation.
Prosecutors have said another suspected participant in the airport attack is at large. Belgian state broadcaster RTBF and France's Le Monde and BFM television reported Thursday that a fifth attacker may also be at large: a man filmed by surveillance cameras in the Brussels metro on Tuesday carrying a large bag alongside Khalid El Bakraoui. RTBF said it is not clear whether that man was killed in the attack.
Attention turned Thursday to Paris attacks suspect Abdeslam, who evaded police in two countries for four months before Friday's capture in the Molenbeek neighborhood where he grew up. He was shot in the leg during the arrest.
A car believed to be carrying Abdeslam left the prison in Bruges where he's been held and arrived Thursday morning at the main Brussels courthouse, followed by a car carrying Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw. A helicopter circled overhead, and the area was under extraordinarily heavy security, as are many parts of the Belgian capital. Abdeslam's lawyer, Sven Mary, also arrived at the court but refused to speak to reporters.
Abdeslam, 26, a French citizen who grew up in Brussels' heavily immigrant Molenbeek neighborhood, slipped through police fingers on multiple occasions, including the day after the attacks.
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