Belgium attacks: Mohamed Abrini 'admits being man in the hat'

Belgian prosecutors say a terror suspect arrested
on Friday has admitted being the "man in the
hat" seen with the bombers at Brussels airport.

They say Mohamed Abrini told investigators that he
was at the scene of the 22 March suicide bombings.
Abrini is also wanted in connection with the attacks
in Paris that killed 130 people last November.
He is one of six men arrested in Brussels on Friday.
Four have been charged with terror offences.
The attacks at Zaventem airport and a metro
station in Brussels left 32 people dead.
Officials believe those who carried out the Brussels
and the Paris attacks were part of the same
network backed by so-called Islamic State.

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Abrini, a 31-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin,
confessed that he was the "man in the hat" after
being confronted with the evidence, the federal
prosecutor said in a statement.
"He said that he threw away his jacket in a rubbish
bin and sold his hat after the attack," the statement
added.
There is no word from the suspect himself or his
lawyer.
Abrini's fingerprints and DNA were found in two
"safe houses" in Brussels, as well as in a car used
during the Paris attacks, investigators said earlier.
The BBC's Damian Grammaticas, in Brussels, said
the apparent confirmation that Abrini was the man
seen in the airport footage was a "huge"
development for Belgian authorities, whose
response to terror threats has come in for
criticism.
The other suspects charged on Saturday were
named as Osama K, Herve BN, and Bilal EM.
They are all accused of "participating in terrorist
acts'' linked to the Brussels bombings. Two other
people arrested on Friday have been released.
Osama K, identified in media reports as Swedish
national Osama Krayem, was the man seen with the
suicide bomber at Malbeek metro station just
before the attack on 22 March, investigators say.
They also say that he bought bags used by the two
bombers who struck at Zaventem airport on the
same day.
Osama K is believed to have entered Greece from
Syria with migrants last year, using a fake Syrian
passport. Prosecutors believe he was driven from
Germany to Belgium by Paris attacks suspect Salah
Abdeslam in October.
Herve BM , described as a Rwandan national, and
Bilal EM are both suspected of having offered
assistance to Abrini and Osama K.
Abrini is thought to have been filmed at a petrol
station with Abdeslam two days before the attacks
in Paris in November.
Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French national of
Moroccan descent, was detained in Brussels in
March, days before the attacks in the Belgian
capital.
The latest charges follow days of arrests and raids
in Brussels.
On Saturday, heavily-armed police carried out a
search in the Etterbeek area of Brussels. The target
was a flat which police believe may have been used
as a safe house by the militants.