Documents about Germany’s Juelich nuclear research centre were found at Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam’s Brussels flat, reports say.
The suspect, captured four days before the Brussels bombings, had internet print-outs and photos of the centre’s boss, media network RND said. Juelich’s reactor was decommissioned and German officials insist all nuclear plants are safe from terror attack.
Senior German officials have said they have no information on the matter. However, RND cites sources within Germany’s parliamentary control committee saying they were briefed at the end of March by Hans-Georg Maassen, head of German domestic intelligence.
Juelich lies some 30km (20 miles) from the Belgian border and the German report suggests material found printed out in the suspect’s flat in Molenbeek included photos of the research centre’s chairman, Wolfgang Marquardt.
Salah Abdeslam, 26, was arrested after a four-month manhunt on suspicion of planning the 13 November Islamist gun and bomb attacks on Paris in which 130 people were killed. His brother Brahim was among the bombers while he escaped back to Belgium and was eventually caught on 18 March at a friend’s home in Molenbeek, close to his own flat.
Four days later, Islamist associates of Salah Abdeslam bombed Brussels airport and Maelbeek metro station, killing 32 people.
Last month’s bombings have prompted a deepening political row in Belgium, after leaked EU reports from 2011 and 2015 highlighted flaws in security at the country’s airports. Belgian federal transport agency chief Laurent Ledoux has resigned, complaining of a lack of funding from the Transport Minister, Jacqueline Galant. He told Belgian radio station RTL that by stepping down he was doing what Ms Galant herself should have done – “take responsibility and step aside”.