FRENCH police accidentally permitted the suspected driver of one group of gunmen, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, to avoid arrest at the border on Saturday and cross to his native Belgium.
On Monday, Belgian police in balaclavas, gas masks and body armor raided Abdeslam’s suspected hideout in the Molenbeek district of Brussels but came out empty-handed.
Abdeslam’s brother, Brahim, was among the suicide bombers and killed one civilian after blowing himself up outside a restaurant. Police in Molenbeek arrested another brother, Mohamed, but freed him on Monday without charge.
After he left police custody, Mohamed Abdeslam told reporters that his family couldn’t believe that both of his brothers were jihadists. He said all three siblings grew up in Belgium and seemingly were content with life in the West.
He said he didn’t know where his brother Salah was or whether he would surrender to police, and expressed familial loyalty to him despite his shock over the mass killings. “You have to understand that we have a family, we have a mom, and he remains her child,” he said. AP