Belgian extremists ‘had bomb chemicals’

The trial of the seven men came as France announced a series of measures to prevent young French from heading to Syria to join militant groups.

Brussels // A Belgian terror cell with links to the Paris and Brussels attacks had acquired bomb-making chemicals before it was smashed by police last year, a judge said on Monday at the opening of the trial of the cell’s members.

The trial came as France on Monday announced a series of measures to prevent young French from heading to Syria to join militant groups, with prime minister Manuel Valls saying the fight against terrorism is the “challenge of our generation”.

Seven men who went on trial on Monday in a Brussels court were arrested after a deadly raid in the Belgian town of Verviers in January last year which exposed an alleged plot to kill police officers.

Nine suspects who are still at large are being tried in their absence.

The presiding judge, Pierre Hendrickx, said the police who raided the Verviers hideout discovered weapons, munitions and chemical products that could have been used to make four kilograms of TATP.

TATP is the highly volatile homemade explosives that ISIL extremists used in both the November 13 Paris attacks and the March 22 Brussels bombings.

Mr Hendrickx listed the chemicals as five litres of bleach, 15 litres of acetone and 12 litres of hydrogen peroxide. He said police also found an electrical item that could have been used as a detonator.

The judge said the police, backed by French paramilitary officers, also seized three AK-47 assault rifles, four handguns, hundreds of cartridges and material that could have made police uniforms.

Police believe Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of November’s Paris attacks, was giving orders to the Verviers cell by phone from Greece using the name of Omar.

Abaaoud, who was killed in a shootout in Paris days after the attacks, also had close links to the cell behind the Brussels airport and metro attacks.

French president Francois Hollande has said the same terror cell was behind the Paris massacre, in which gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people, and the Brussels attacks in which 32 people died. Both attacks were claimed by ISIL.

On Monday, French premier Manuel Valls announced 80 measures to counter terrorism and radicalisation.

He said the government will spend €100 million over the next three years to double the number of families with children at risk that can be followed by social workers. Right now, 1,600 youths and 800 families are being followed.

The French make up the largest European contingent among the 12,000 foreign fighters with ISIL. Out of a national population of 66 million, about 9,300 people in France have been signalled for radicalisation, either through their families or by the police. Mr Valls said two-thirds are under 25 years old, 40 per cent are women, and about a quarter are converts. They come from all social backgrounds, and from big cities and country towns alike.

The first centre to treat radicalised youths and returnees from Syria will open this summer, he said, and by 2017 he wants such centres in all of mainland France’s 13 regions.

* Agence France-Presse and Bloomberg