Spain Arrests 9 in Brussels Attacks Investigation
By RAPHAEL MINDER and MILAN SCHREUERAPRIL 25, 2017
BARCELONA, Spain — Nine men were arrested on Tuesday in a series of early morning raids in
and around Barcelona, Spain, in connection with the March 2016 terrorist attacks in Brussels.
There was no evidence, he said, that the men were planning an attack in Catalonia, although "we cannot rule this out." In a telephone interview, Eric Van
der Sypt, a spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, said the investigation had been opened by a Belgian judge about eight months ago.
Jordi Jané, the home affairs minister for the Catalonia region, said the arrests were made "in connection with the terrorist attacks
that occurred in Belgium" last March, but he added that the precise role of the men was still being investigated.
The arrests followed an eight-month investigation, in which the Belgian police were involved, Mr. Jané said.
VRT News, the Flemish public broadcaster, reported
that three of the nine people arrested in Spain had been in Belgium a few days before the Brussels attacks and had been in touch with Yassine Atar, who was found to have had the keys for a safe house used by the Brussels attackers.
Mr. Atar’s brother, Oussama Atar, 32, a Belgian of Moroccan ancestry, is still sought
by the authorities as a possible coordinator of the Paris and Brussels attackers.