A Belgian court on Tuesday ordered that a man detained a week ago in connection with last year’s Paris terror attacks must remain behind bars for another month, at least, a federal prosecutor’s office announced.
A man identified Ayoub B. is the 10th person detained in Belgium for his or her role in November’s bloody, coordinated attacks in the French capital that killed 130 people.
He was arrested December 30 in the Molenbeek area north of Brussels and charged with terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization, the federal prosecutor said last week in a statement.
The arrest came as authorities searched a house in Molenbeek, an impoverished suburb of Brussels with a history of links to terrorist plots.
That raid led to the seizure of about 10 cell phones, but no weapons or explosives.
While authorities have not detailed what they believe Ayoub B. did, the charges against him suggest that prosecutors suspect him of a notable role in some or all of the massacres at the Bataclan concert venue, the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, restaurants and cafes.
Given that, it’s perhaps little surprise that “the pretrial Chamber of the Brussels Tribunal has prolonged (the detention of Ayoub B.) for a one-month period,” according to a prosecutor’s statement Tuesday.
