BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – On March 22, a series of blasts hit the Brussels Airport and a metro station located near the EU institutions' offices in the center of the city, killing 35 people.
Abrini was considered to be the man wearing a hat who had been recorded on security camera footage in the airport several minutes before the attacks walking alongside two suicide bombers, but the information was not confirmed by the authorities.
According to the L'Echo newspaper, Belgium's federal prosecutor confirmed Abrini was indeed the third suspect in the bombing, and that the FBI had assisted the Belgian police with its next-generation identification system allowing facial recognition.
Abrini was also linked to Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was detained in Belgium in March, shortly before the attacks in Brussels. Security footage from a Ressons gas station, filmed in early November, shows the two men together in a car that was later used in the attacks.
