Belgium Charges 3 with Attempts to Join Militants in Syria
Local Editor
Belgium's federal prosecutor's office said Sunday his country charged three people with trying to go to Syria and join militants there.
Police arrested four people on Saturday after raids in Jumet, near the southern city of Charleroi, on suspicion that they planned to go to either war-torn Syria or Libya.
In parallel, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor confirmed that three had been charged for links to a terrorist organization and were now being held in preventive detention.
The spokesman further stated that a fourth person had been freed after questioning.
Around 500 Belgians may have gone as foreign fighters to Syria, joining up with extremists, including from "ISIS" organization which claimed the November attacks on the French capital.
Relatively, Belgian police arrested 11 people in connection with the Paris attacks which left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded as it emerges that the onslaught was largely organized and coordinated from Belgium.
Earlier this month, same authorities identified three safe houses used by key Paris suspects -- in Brussels, in Charleroi, and in Auvelais.
However, the prosecutor's office said Saturday that the latest Jumet arrests were not linked to the ongoing investigation into the Paris attacks.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
