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Bruxelas exagerou?
Tinha alternativa? Podia ter optado por uma concentração de meios
militares menos forte? A ameaça é real e há suspeitos em fuga.
Vários estarão em território belga. Mas Bruxelas e – por
extensão natural – toda a Europa, pode ter caído numa armadilha.
Elevado o alerta de segurança para o nível máximo, Bruxelas só
pode baixá-lo se conseguir mostrar resultados concretos. Prender
suspeitos é um deles. Em particular, os dois homens que procura
desde o dia 13. Se não conseguir, vai Bruxelas continuar
indefinidamente em estado de sítio, com as crianças em casa e os
transportes parados?
EDITORIAL / PÚBLICO
/ 22/11/2015
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Belgium
extends high terror alert in Brussels
Belgian
police arrest 16 but the hunt goes on for a suspected Paris
accomplice.
By GIULIA
PARAVICINI, CRAIG WINNEKER AND RYAN HEATH 11/22/15, 7:10 PM CET
Updated 11/23/15, 1:23 AM CET
Brussels will remain
on high alert on Monday, with schools and the metro system closed,
because of an “imminent and high” risk of terrorist attack as
security services continue the hunt for Salah Abdeslam, who is
suspected of taking part in the Paris attacks.
Belgian police
arrested 16 people late Sunday in raids on 19 addresses, but
prosecutors said the 26-year-old was not among those detained, and no
firearms or explosives were found. During a search of a café in
Molenbeek, a Brussels area notorious for Islamist radicals where
Abdeslam lived, a car drove at police who opened fire. An injured
suspect was taken into custody.
Although the brother
of the Paris suspect made a public appeal for him to surrender,
Belgian media reported that Salah Abdeslam had been spotted near the
city of Liège, but had escaped by car.
Belgian Prime
Minister Charles Michel said the decision to extend the state of
alert in Brussels, first imposed in the early hours of Saturday, had
been taken because of the continued threat of an “attack similar
to the one which took place in Paris, with attacks that could be
launched simultaneously in several places.”
Heavily armed
soldiers and police, backed up by armored cars, patrolled the streets
of Brussels from Saturday morning, when the city was put on the
highest state of terror alert — level 4. Large shopping areas and
stores were closed, public events and concerts were canceled, and
many shops and restaurants also shut their doors to business. Police
appealed to the press and users of social media not to divulge
details of counter-terrorism operations, to help the effort to
capture the suspects,
Brussels residents
have been advised to avoid large crowds and places like airports and
train stations, and to exercise caution throughout the city. School
and university campus were closed and will remain shut Monday, when
the national security council will take a fresh look at the situation
after an update from the Coordinating Unit for Threat Analysis.
“We
know that the decisions taken will complicate economic and
professional life tomorrow” — Prime Minister Charles Michel.
The prime minister
said the information about the continued high threat level had been
communicated to the EU institutions headquartered in Brussels. The
European Council raised its alert level to orange from yellow and
canceled all non-essential meetings, though Eurogroup finance
ministers will go ahead with their planned session.
“We’re not happy
with this situation but we have to act responsibly,” Michel told a
news conference. “We know that the decisions taken will complicate
economic and professional life tomorrow.
A special government
hotline for those seeking information on school openings and public
transport received more than 12,000 calls on Sunday alone.
The prime minister
declined to comment on the ongoing investigation related to suspects
from the Paris attacks, who remained at large and are thought to have
been planning another attack. Belgian officials did confirm, however,
that Ahmed Dahmani, a 26-year-old Belgian national of Moroccan
descent with ties to Abdeslam, was arrested in Antalya, Turkey on
Saturday morning.
“Dahmani was known
to us; we knew he could have left for Syria,” Eric Van Der Sypt, a
spokesperson for the Belgium’s prosecutor’s office said.
Osman Sert, a senior
press adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, said
Dahmani was arrested because “he has links with Paris attacks.”
An Italian senior police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity
said: “Dahmani is a connection of Salah Abdeslam, the man currently
on the run.”
Italian police
confirmed that Abdeslam traveled by car with a Belgian plate on a
ferry from Bari, Italy, to Patrasso, Greece, on August 1 with Ahmed
Dahmani. The two returned to Italy from Greece on August 5. After an
inquiry, the police discovered that on the day of his departure
Abdeslam bought a second ticket with a person who had the initials
A.D., which stands for “Ahmed Dahmani,” the Italian official
said.
Brother’s appeal
The U.S. embassy in
Belgium urged Americans living in Brussels to stay at home while the
state of high alert was in effect.
Belgian authorities
urged people to “facilitate and respect security checks,” to
avoid spreading rumors and to follow only official information from
the Belgian authorities.
The threat level
remained at 3 for the rest of the country. Authorities last raised
the threat level to 4 in December 2007.
Law enforcement
officials had intensified their search Friday for Paris attacks
suspect Abdeslam, acting on intelligence and reports that he was in
the Belgian capital.
“We have two
possibilities: Either he failed [in Paris] and now has to succeed [in
a terror attack],” or “he got scared in Paris and ISIS is not
very amused with this,”“ said Van Der Sypt.
“I
would rather see my brother in prison than in a cemetery” —
Mohammed Abdeslam.
“The best
possibility for him, I would say, is to surrender himself to the law
enforcement authorities,” Van Der Sypt said.
Abdeslam, who lived
in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, was not among those arrested
during a dramatic police raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis
Wednesday morning and has not been identified as one of the three
people killed during that operation — one of whom was suspected
attack ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
Abaaoud’s cousin,
Hasna Aitboulahcen, was also killed during the raid. The third body
has not yet been identified.
On Sunday, Mohammed
Abdeslam made a televised appeal for his brother to turn himself in
to authorities.
“I would rather
see my brother in prison than in a cemetery,” he told Belgian
national broadcaster RTBF.
Another Abdeslam
brother, Ibrahim, blew himself up in the Paris attacks. Mohammed told
RTBF he was unaware that Salah and Ibrahim had become radicalized.
“When your brother
starts praying, it’s not neccesarily a radicalist change,” he
said. “When your brother tells you that they will stop drinking,
it’s not a radicalist change. They were only people that wanted to
become better, from our point of view, and be a bit more respectful
in their religion.”
Maïa de la Baume,
Carmen Paun and Vincent Chadwick contributed to this story.
This article was
updated with details of police operations on Sunday night.
Authors:
Giulia Paravicini ,
Craig Winneker and Ryan Heath
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