Belgium probes ‘arms dealer’ links to Paris gunman

Belgian investigators said Thursday they are probing whether an arms dealer sold weapons used in the Paris attacks, after confirming gunman Amery Coulibiaca sold the man a car belonging to his partner Haya Boumdienne.

The man, Neetin Farasula, from the airport city of Charleroi in French-speaking southern Belgium, is in detention on suspicion of a possible link to the weapons used in last week’s Islamist assaults in which 17 people were killed, they said.

The development is the latest in a Europe-wide attempt to follow the trail of the Paris massacre, after Spain opened an investigation Thursday into Coulibaly and Boumeddiene’s visit to Madrid shortly before the attacks.

“The issue of weapons is under investigation,” Eric Van der Sijpt, a spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor, told AFP, adding that Karasular was under suspicion for “arms trafficking”.

Belgian prosecutors are working with French authorities to establish any “possible link” to last week’s attacks at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris .

Coulibaly, who was killed by police on Friday, is also believed to have shot dead a policewoman in another Paris attack.

Van der Sijpt said that the Belgian suspect “bought the car belonging to Coulibaly’s wife.”

Karasular handed himself into police on Tuesday, saying that he had been in contact with Coulibaly in recent months and had tried to “swindle” the Frenchman over the car deal, but was scared after the Paris attacks.

Investigators searched his house and found documents proving the sale of the vehicle and papers showing negotiations with Coulibaly about arms and ammunition, including a Tokarev pistol of the sort used by the Frenchman during the supermarket attack, Belga news agency said.

Karasular will appear before a magistrate in Charleroi on Monday who will decide whether he will remain in custody.

Turkish authorities say Boumeddiene crossed into Syria on January 8 from Turkey after arriving in Istanbul on a flight from Madrid.