Belgium charges 11th person over deadly Paris attacks: prosecutors

PanARMENIAN.Net - A Belgian judge on Friday, January 22 charged an 11th person with terrorism-related offences over the deadly Paris attacks, two days after the suspect was arrested in a raid in Brussels, AFP reports.

The man identified as Zakaria J. "has been charged with terrorist murders and participation in the activities of a terrorist group," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The Belgian national, who was arrested in the troubled immigrant neighborhood of Molenbeek on Wednesday, is being kept in police custody, it added, according to AFP.

Ten other people have been charged in Belgium under the investigation into the attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more in the French capital on November 13.

The prosecutors declined to deny or confirm Belgian media reports that Zakaria J. is considered close to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the presumed mastermind of the attacks who was killed in a French police raid days after the massacre.

Under Belgian law, Zakaria J. must appear within five days before a court which will decide whether he should remain in custody.

No weapons or explosives were found in the raids in Molenbeek, an area dubbed a hotbed of jihadists which has seen a string of police raids since the Paris attacks.