Mysterious key player in Paris attacks turns out to be Belgian sought already since 2014

The suspect of the Paris attacks identified on Monday as the mysterious ‘Soufiane Kayal’ is a Belgian citizen for whom an international arrest warrant was issued already in 2014. That did not prevent him to return from Syria and supposedly serve as bomb maker for the terrorist plot.

Najim Laachraoui – picture left from the initial wanted notice naming him Soufiane Kayal, right from the updated version with his true identity

Najim Laachraoui, a Belgian citizen born on the 18th of May 1991 in the Moroccan town of Ajdir, but raised in the Brussels municipality of Schaerbeek. That’s the true identity of Paris suspect Soufiane Kayal, according to a public statement of the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office.¹

Early in December of last year, a wanted notice was distributed for Kayal and his companion Samir Bouzid², stating that their names were false, but that both men were present in the car of Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam during a control at the Hungarian-Austrian border on September 9, 2015.

On the 5th of October, the passport of Kayal was used to rent a house in Auvelais, in the southern Belgian province of Namur. A house that was subsequently used by several of the Paris suspects. Apparently it was meant to store explosives, since a perfectly dry basement was asked.

It was thought for quite some time that Kayal and Bouzid only have had a limited role in the logistics of the attacks. But a reconstruction of the telecommunication between all different actors learned that they coordinated the attacks in real time from somewhere in Brussels.

According to a detailed account that CNN has compiled, Kayal and Bouzid were even the ones who directed Abdelhamid Abaaoud’s niece to his initial hiding place. Compared with the man who long was named as mastermind of the Paris attacks, investigators stated about Kayal and Bouzid: “They outranked Abaaoud”.³

In hindsight it seems odd that it took so long to identify Kayal, since Laachraoui is one of 30 defendants at a terrorist trial that started in Brussels a month ago. All the accused belong to the network of Khalid Zerkani, the very same jihad recruiter who has sent Abaaoud to Syria.

Laachraoui left for Syria himself in February, 2013. Investigators say that he became responsible for the reception of new recruits, and for that significant role within the terrorist group Islamic State, the maximum of 15 years in jail was asked against him. The verdict is expected in May.

It is in the official complaint for the so-called case ‘Zerkani-bis’ (the first trial concluded last summer and convicted Abaaoud to 20 years in jail) that the two year old international arrest warrant against Laachraoui was revealed. More precisely, it was issued on March 18, 2014.

For Laachraoui — who is also known as ‘Abou Idriss’ — that wasn’t an obstacle for his return. Chances are high that he has served as the bomb maker for the terrorist plot. Apart from the house in Auvelais, his DNA was also found on two of the explosives belts that were used in the Paris attacks.⁴

His DNA was also found in the Schaerbeek apartment where the bombs reportedly were made, and Laachraoui was skilled for the job. When he finished secondary education at the ‘Institut de le Sainte Famille d’Helmet’ in Schaerbeek, he went on to study electromechanics.⁵

1An updated wanted notice was published here: http://www.police.be/fed/fr/avis-de-recherche/recherches/suspects-connus/1203497-najim-laachraoui

2Samir Bouzid was recently identified as Mohamed Aziz Belkaid, an Algerian with residence in Sweden. He was killed during a counter-terrorist operation in the Brussels municipality of Vorst on March 15, 2016

3See http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/21/europe/inside-paris-terror-attack/index.html

4See http://www.rtbf.be/info/dossier/attaques-terroristes-a-paris/detail_un-nouvel-avis-de-recherche-lance-par-la-police-federale?id=9246825

5See on page 12 of this school magazine: http://www.sainte-famille.be/telechargements/maillon116.pdf

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