Spain Arrests 9 in Brussels Attacks Investigation<br />By RAPHAEL MINDER and MILAN SCHREUERAPRIL 25, 2017<br />BARCELONA, Spain — Nine men were arrested on Tuesday in a series of early morning raids in<br />and around Barcelona, Spain, in connection with the March 2016 terrorist attacks in Brussels.<br />There was no evidence, he said, that the men were planning an attack in Catalonia, although "we cannot rule this out." In a telephone interview, Eric Van<br />der Sypt, a spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, said the investigation had been opened by a Belgian judge about eight months ago.<br />Jordi Jané, the home affairs minister for the Catalonia region, said the arrests were made "in connection with the terrorist attacks<br />that occurred in Belgium" last March, but he added that the precise role of the men was still being investigated.<br />The arrests followed an eight-month investigation, in which the Belgian police were involved, Mr. Jané said.<br />VRT News, the Flemish public broadcaster, reported<br />that three of the nine people arrested in Spain had been in Belgium a few days before the Brussels attacks and had been in touch with Yassine Atar, who was found to have had the keys for a safe house used by the Brussels attackers.<br />Mr. Atar’s brother, Oussama Atar, 32, a Belgian of Moroccan ancestry, is still sought<br />by the authorities as a possible coordinator of the Paris and Brussels attackers.
