Extradition to France of Paris attacks suspect delayed

Salah Abdeslam's lawyer Sven Mary on Thursday said it would be "several weeks" before his client could be transferred to France, because Belgian investigators still had to question him about a police raid at a Brussels apartment on 15 March.

Abdeslam lawyer Sven Mary leaves the federal police headquarters in Brussels Reuters/Francois Lenoir

Abdeslam is believed to be the sole survivor of the group which carried out coordinated suicide bomb and gun attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people and were claimed by the Islamic State armed group.

Investigators are also seeking to question Abdeslam about a police raid on an apartment in a Brussels suburb on 15 March, which may lead to clues about the organisation of the Brussels airport and metro attacks on 22 March which killed 32 people.

The raid triggered a shootout during which several officers were injured and terror suspect Mohamed Belkaid, an Algerian, was shot dead.

Two men fled the scene and prosecutors later said they had found Abdeslam's fingerprints in the apartment.

The 26-year-old French national, who was captured in a nearby suburb three days later, denies having any prior knowledge of the Brussels attacks despite having links to at least two of the bombers. Khalid El Bakraoui, who blew himself up at Maalbeek metro station, rented the flat where the raid took place. And one of the two airport bombers, Najim Laachraoui, drove to Hungary with Abdeslam in September.

The ties between the suspects in both attacks have exposed a complex network of cross-border jihadist cells, putting pressure on European security forces to improve cooperation.

A committee of French lawmakers probing the two major terror strikes in Paris last year met in Brussels with Belgian and European counter-terrorism officials on Thursday.

Georges Fenech, who presides over the group, told a press conference that "it is important to make progress on cooperation" between France and Belgium, especially on intelligence sharing and criminal law policy.

Also on Thursday Belgian prosecutors released new footage of the third man involved in the Brussels attacks dubbed as "the man with the hat". They called for witnesses to come forward with any information on the suspect's whereabouts or his discarded belongings.

The newly-released video shows the man wearing a dark hat and a light-coloured jacket, fleeing the airport's departure hall and on to central Brussels where where surveillance cameras lose track of him.