ZCZC
BFF-28
FRANCE-ATTACKS-BELGIUM
Paris attacks suspect given conditional release
BRUSSELS, June 19, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A man suspected of briefly helping top
suspect Salah Abdeslam in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks of
2015 has been released and placed under judicial supervision in Belgium,
prosecutors said Tuesday.
Ali Oulkadi, who was imprisoned in France, drove Abdeslam across Brussels
on November 14, the day after the attacks that killed 130 people, Belgian and
French prosecutors told AFP.
That was the last trace of Abdeslam who then disappeared to become the
world’s most wanted fugitive before his spectacular capture in the Belgian
capital four months later.
Abdeslam exonerated Oulkadi to investigators earlier this year, claiming
his old friend knew nothing of the terror attacks.
French courts on Monday allowed Oulkadi to return to the Belgian capital
where he resided before his arrest at the end of 2015.
Another man suspected of accompanying Abdeslam back to Brussels from Paris
— Hamza Attou — has already been released, with a third, Mohamed Amri,
still behind bars in France.
Amri and Attou are suspected of accompanying Abdeslam back to Brussels,
getting him past three police checks in France before crossing the border
into Belgium.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1602 hrs