Four people with suspected Belgium terror plot links arrested in Greece

17/1/2015

By Duncan Robinson

Greek authorities have arrested four people suspected of being involved in a terrorist plot to kill police officers in Belgium, according to AFP and Greek media.

The arrests in Athens came after Belgian police killed two suspected terrorists during a shoot out in the eastern city of Verviers on Thursday as part of a sweeping police operation across the country that resulted in five people being charged with terror offences.

Reports in Belgian media on Saturday suggested that the plan — which involved fake police uniforms and machine guns — had been international, with some of its orchestrators based in Greece.

Belgium has become a focus of anti-terror operations within Europe. Belgian authorities are investigating whether the weapons used in the Charlie Hebdo killings were had been purchased in Belgium. The country of 11m people also a disproportionate number of citizens fighting in Iraq and Syria. Between 300 and 400 Belgians are estimated to have made the trip — a higher number per capita than any other country in the EU.

The Belgian government this weekend took the step of deploying 300 soldiers across the country for extra protection at potential targets. Security at police stations across Brussels was also increased, with heavily armed police standing guard at stations in the city centre.

On Saturday, soldiers were stationed outside Brussels’s Jewish museum, where three people were shot dead in 2014. The main suspect in this case is Mehdi Nemmouche, a French national who had spent a year fighting in Syria, and whose trial is scheduled to begin later this year. Jewish schools in the Belgian capital were also closed late last week after the plot was revealed on Thursday.

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