Belgium charges three Chechens on suspicion of ‘terrorism’

BRUSSELS: A Belgian judge on Friday charged three Chechens on suspicion of terrorism offenses, the federal prosecutor’s office said, a day after police launched country-wide raids over fears of an attack in preparation.
They are suspected of involvement with the Daesh group’s Khorasan offshoot in central Asia. Seven people, all of Chechen origin, were detained on Thursday.
Six suspects appeared before a judge on Friday, who ordered three kept in custody, charging them with offenses including “preparing a terrorist attack.”
One suspect was also charged with financing terrorism, the prosecutor’s office said.
The other three were released but the seventh suspect did not appear before the judge.
But the prosecutor’s office said in a statement that at this stage, there was no “concrete” information about “a specific purpose.”
Thursday’s police raids across Belgium were carried out in Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, Courtrai and Menin, under warrants issued by the Antwerp-based judge.
An official told AFP on Thursday there was no evidence of any link to the 2024 Paris Olympics, whose opening ceremony takes place on Friday under unprecedented security.
Belgian media reported the arrests came as a precautionary measure ahead of the Games.
The same sources said the action was taken in coordination with authorities in Germany, where there were raids and two arrests of individuals linked to the same Daesh group.
Belgium in 2016 was rocked by suicide bomb attacks at its airport and in its metro system that killed 32 people and wounded hundreds.
The attacks were claimed by the Daesh group.
In October last year, a gunman who said on social media he was inspired by the Daesh group shot dead two Swedish football fans in Brussels.