A day after being captured in a fierce gun battle with authorities, Salah Abdeslam has been charged with participation in a terrorist murder -- last fall’s horrific attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead.
Abdeslam was also charged with taking part in the activities in a terrorist organization, according to a statement Saturday from the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office. The office doesn’t specify which terror group, though ISIS claimed it was responsible for the Paris carnage. Monir Ahmed Alaaj, also known as Amine Choukri -- the other man wounded in a raid Friday in the Brussels’ suburb of Molenbeek -- faces the same charges. Of the three others detained in the operation, one faces charges of participating in a terror group’s activities and hiding criminals, and another with hiding criminals. The third was let go without being charged.
Both Abdeslam and Alaaj went directly to nearby hospitals after the Molenbeek raid. They were later released, Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur tweeted without disclosing either man’s location.