Belgium charges two new suspects over 2015 Paris attacks

Belgian authorities have charged two people with supplying fake documents to a man involved in the November 2015 attacks in Paris 

Belgian police detained a man and a woman in a house search on Wednesday
Belgian police detained a man and a woman in a house search on Wednesday

Belgium has charged two suspects with providing false documents to a man linked to the November 2015 Paris attacks, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

The pair, a man and a woman, were "suspected to have provided Khalid El Bakraoui with the false documents afterwards used in preparation of the Paris attacks," which were claimed by the Islamic State group and killed 130 people, prosecutors said.

Bakraoui was the suicide bomber who blew himself up at a Brussels metro station, while his brother Ibrahim and another man attacked Brussels airport in coordinated suicide attacks that killed 32 people on 22 March last year.

Belgian police detained a man and a woman in a house search on Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Farid K. has "been charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, falsification of documents and use of false documents," while Meryem E.B. "has been charged with falsification of documents and use of false documents," the prosecutor's office said

Farid K. has been placed in police custody while Meryem E.B was released under "strict" conditions, it added.

Some 20 people have been charged in Belgium in connection with the Paris attacks. Investigators said the Paris and Brussels attacks were carried out by the same cell.