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Brussels attack: Belgian police release 'man in the hat' suspect Faycal C citing lack of evidence

Prosecutors had been trying to link the man named in Belgian media reports as Faycal Cheffou to the bomb site using DNA evidence

Adam Withnall,Caroline Mortimer

Monday 28 March 2016 15:22 BST

Abrini says he is this man, pictured pushing a trolley carrying explosives in Brussels airport

The only man arrested and charged by prosecutors over the Brussels airport bombings has been released by Belgian police due to a lack of evidence.

Named by local media reports as Fayçal Cheffou, police said the suspect - who is also known as "the man in the hat" because of his appearance in CCTV footage – is not the man suspected of being the mystery third bomber.

Police said he had none of the links to the Paris attacks that characterised the other three men who died carrying out last Tuesday's attacks and have been identified.

Prosecutors had been attempting to link Cheffou to the bombings by DNA evidence from the scene, but have now let him go saying their suspicions had not been substantiated.

Earlier, officials released new CCTV footage of the suspect seen walking with the two airport bombers, Ibrahim el Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, moments before the attack.

Airport CCTV shows the three suspects; Faycal Cheffou was initially thought to be the man on the right (Belgian Federal Police ) (Belgian Federal Police)

Authorities released the video in the hope of identifying the man on the right, seen wearing light-coloured clothing and a black hat.

He was pushing a trolley carrying a suitcase containing what police said was the largest bomb of the three but it failed to detonate.

His two accomplices died when their devices exploded in the airport terminal shortly after 8am killing 11 people and wounding 100 more.

Soon after, another suicide bomber attacked the Maalbeek metro station in the centre of the city killing another 20 people. He has been identified as Khalid El Bakraoui, Ibrahim's brother.

On Monday, Belgian authorities announced a further four people had died in hospital following the attacks.

Brussels attacks victims

Show all 11

1/11Brussels attacks victims

Brussels attacks victims

CONFIRMED DEAD: Adelma Tapia Ruiz

Ms Tapia, 37, was from Peru and had lived in Brussels for six years. She was at the airport with her husband, Christophe Delcambe, and their twin four-year-old daughters, Maureen and Alondra. They were checking in to fly to New York to visit Ms Ruiz’s sisters when the blast struck. The death of Ms Tapia was confirmed by the Peruvian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and her brother Fernando Tapia Coral has told Peruvian radio that she had planned to return to Peru later this year. In a Facebook post, Mr Tapia called her death “incomprehensible” in a Facebook post. Her husband and children survived, but it has been reported that one of her daughters was injured by debris

Brussels attacks victims

CONFIRMED DEAD: Leopold Hecht

Mr Hecht was a young Belgian student working towards a qualification in law at Saint-Louis University in Brussels. The university confirmed in a Facebook post that he was one of the victims of the Maelbeek metro bombing

Brussels attacks victims

CONFIRMED DEAD: Oliver Delespesse

Mr Delespesse, 36, was confirmed dead in the metro bombing by his employers Wallonie Bruxelles Federation, an organisation which represents French speakers in the region. One of his colleagues, Olivier Dradin posted a tribute on Facebook: "I wanted to pay tribute to him and to his family and to all the other victims"

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Sasha Pinczowski

A brother and sister from New York, who were at Zaventem to fly back to the US at the time of the blasts, are also missing. Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski were on the phone to their family when the phone went dead, according to Dutch media. Ms Pinczowski studied business and had previously completed an internship at the UN

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Alexander Pinczowski

A brother and sister from New York, who were at Zaventem to fly back to the US at the time of the blasts, are also missing. Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski were on the phone to their family when the phone went dead, according to Dutch media. Ms Pinczowski studied business and had previously completed an internship at the UN

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Aline Bastin

Ms Bastin, 29, a former employee of the European Chemical Industry Council, was on the metro at the time of the attacks. Her friends have launched an appeal on Facebook for news of her whereabouts

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Raghavendran Ganesan

Mr Ganesan’s brother has set up an appeal for information on the whereabouts of his sibling, who was on the metro at the time of the attacks. He wrote on Facebook that he had spoken to the Indian embassy, who were still searching for Mr Ganesan

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Sabrina Fazal

There has not been word of Ms Fazal, a 25-year-old Belgian student, since yesterday morning. She would have been on the metro at the time of the attacks, on the way to the Haute Ecole Galilée in central Brussels, where she is studying

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: David Dixon

The family of Mr Dixon, a computer programmer from Nottingham, has not heard from him since he left for work yesterday morning. He is believed to have been on the metro at the time of the blast. “It’s just waiting, which is heartbreaking,” the sister of Charlotte Sutcliffe, Mr Dixon’s partner, told Radio 4’s Today program. His friend Simon Harley-Jones told the BBC that Ms Sutcliffe had been driving around hospitals in the hope of finding him

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Bart Migom

Mr Migom, 21, was on his way to Athens, but never arrived. He was texting his girlfriend, Emily Eisenman, from the train to Brussels airport however she haven't heard from him since the attacks. His cell phone rings, she said but there is no answer

Brussels attacks victims

MISSING: Justin and Stephanie Shults

An American couple who lived in Brussels are among the missing, their family have confirmed. Justin and Stephanie had just dropped Stephanie’s mother, Carolyn Moore, off at the Brussels Airport when the blasts occurred. Mrs Moore, survived the attack, but the couple has not been found

Prosecutors have charged three more people with participating in a terrorist group after a series of raids following bomb attacks on Brussels airport and a metro train last week.

In a statement on Monday, the federal prosecutors named the three charged as Yassine A, Mohamed B and Aboubaker O, adding they could not give further information about them at this stage.

On Sunday, they had announced they were holding four people following 13 new raids in and around Brussels and Antwerp.

Dutch authorities arrested a man in Rotterdam after a request by French authorities. They said they plan to extradite him to France to face charges in relation to an alleged foiled attempt to launch an attack on Paris. Isis has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for Belgium’s role in air strikes against the terror group’s position in Syria and Iraq.

Timeline of arrests

18 March, Salah Abdeslam: Arrested in Molenbeek, a now notorious district of Brussels linked to many terrorist suspects, Abdeslam was charged with ‘terrorist murder’ for November’s Paris attacks.

18 March, Amine Choukri: Also charged with terrorist murder over Paris. Real name not yet known. Linked to Abdeslam by German police.

24 March, Facyal C: Apprehended in central Brussels. (Released on 28 March due to lack of evidence)

25 March, Rabah N: Charged in relation to an alleged foiled attempt to launch a terrorist attack on Paris.

24 March, Aboubakar A: Apprehended by police in a car in Brussels, and charged with terrorism-related activities.

25 March, Abderamane A: Was jailed for seven years in 2005 in France after playing a part in the assassination of an Afghan commander in 2001. Shot last week at a tram stop in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels.

27 March, Yassine A, Mohamed B and Aboubaker O: Apprehended during raids in at 13 addresses across Brussels on Sunday.

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