The mystery man in the white hat pictured at Brussels airport shortly before Tuesday’s deadly attacks was identified by local media Saturday as a journalist with links to radical Islam.
But on Monday, the Belgian authorities released a man named Fayçal C, who was thought to have been the man in the hat, citing insufficient evidence to “the clues that had led to [his] arrest.” The police also said earlier in the day that they were still looking for the man in the hat, and released a video of him from an airport security camera.
Belgian authorities had charged Fayçal C with participation in a terrorist group, terrorist killings and attempted terrorist killings. He was arrested Thursday evening outside the federal prosecutor’s office.
The man, identified by local media as Fayçal Cheffou, has been described as a freelance journalist.
In 2014, Cheffou made a documentary on the mistreatment of Muslim prisoners in a Belgian jail close to Zaventem. The footage (see below) shows Cheffou walking outside the prison at night while inmates shout in the background.
Cheffou then turns to camera, and blames “politicians” and the “media” who are “disrespectful of human rights” for ignoring the prisoners’ mistreatment.
A spokesperson for the Brussels mayor, Yvan Mayeur, said Cheffou’s “activism” was well known to the authorities. Mayeur alerted authorities as he thought Cheffou was “dangerous” and “tried to recruit people for radical movements” at the city’s Maximilien Park.
“I was not surprised about the fact that he was a journalist, it’s a good cover,” a government official told POLITICO.
This story was updated to reflect the release of Fayçal on Monday.