Belgium on Monday freed the sole suspect charged over last week’s Islamic State attacks in Brussels that left 35 dead, raising fresh questions about the handling of the case by under-fire Belgian authorities.
Prosecutors charged Faycal C. on Saturday with “terrorist murder” and were investigating whether he was a third airport attacker who fled after his bomb did not go off, but said there was now a lack of evidence.
His release comes as a new blow to an inquiry dogged by accusations that Belgium missed a series of leads in cracking down on a jihadist network linked to the Brussels bombings as well as the November Paris attacks that killed 130 people.
Police earlier Monday released new CCTV footage of a third suspect in the March 22 Zaventem airport attack, the so-called “man in the hat” seen with the two suicide bombers.
Mourners meanwhile held emotional Easter Monday prayers at a medieval cathedral in central Brussels in memory of the 35 people killed and 340 injured in Belgium’s worst ever terror attacks.
Grieving airport personnel and members of the emergency services carried trays of full of candles at the cathedral of Saints-Michel-et-Gudule, and were applauded by the congregation.
“No violence in the name of God can be tolerated,” the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Malines-Brussels, Jozef de Kesel, told worshippers.
“Peace is more than just the absence of violence. There cannot be a real life together without a profound and sincere respect for others.”
– ‘Not substantiated’ -Belgian officials said Monday that the death toll had climbed to 35 after four people died in hospital.
The dead include four Americans as well as people from countries from China to Britain, Sweden to Peru, testament to the cosmopolitan nature of a city that is home to both the European Union and NATO.
Ninety-six remain in hospital.
Brussels is still trying to get back on its feet, with the airport saying it would carry out a test run Tuesday to see if repair work in the wrecked departure hall was satisfactory, but it could not give a firm date for resuming services.
Belgian authorities are continuing to face criticism over whether they could have prevented the tragedy, as the links to the Paris attacks become clearer by the day.
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement that “the indications that led to the arrest of Faycal C. were not substantiated by the ongoing inquiry. As a result, the subject has been released by the examining magistrate.”
A source close to the inquiry told AFP: “Investigators have established that he was not the ‘man in the hat’.”
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