Suicide bomber Laachraoui was model student at Brussels Catholic school
Date
3/24/2016 11:52:15 PM
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) This undated file photo released on March 21 2016 by the federal police on demand of Brussels' king prosecutor shows a combination of two pictures of Najim Laachraoui 25 years old.
PARIS: Brussels suicide bomber NajimLaachraoui a veteran Islamist fighter in Syria also suspectedof making explosive belts for November's Paris attacks was a
model student in a Brussels Catholic high school the school'sdirector told Reuters.
Security sources told local media that Laachraoui a25-year-old Belgian was one of Tuesday's airport suicidebombers identifying him as one of the three men in the CCTVimage released by police.
"Najim Laachraoui was a very good student" said VeronicaPellegrini the director of the Institut de la Sainte Familled'Helmet a Catholic school in the ethnically mixed eastBrussels borough of Schaerbeek.
"He never failed a class" Pellegrini said of Laachraouiwho studied at the school for six years until graduating in2009. "We haven't heard from him since" she told Reuters in aphone interview.
Prosecutors said Laachraoui's DNA was found in houses usedby the Paris attackers last year. He left Brussels for Syria inFebruary 2013. Local media have said he has technical training
that could mean he was the armourer of the operation.
Travelling under the false name Soufiane Kayal he wasdocumented driving from Hungary into Austria in September in acar driven by Salah Abdeslam the prime suspect in the Paris
attacks who was arrested in Brussels last week.
There is speculation Laachraoui had just returned fromSyria possibly by sea with refugees.
Catholic religion classes are part of the school's curriculafor all students independent of their religion and Laachraouiwould have attended those classes as any other studentPellegrini said.
While the school offers technical studies in fields such aschemistry and Belgian media say Laachraoui had studiedelectromechanics Pellegrini said he did not take such courses
in her school where he only pursued general studies.
The school's motto is a verse from the Bible (John 3:14-18):"We know that we have passed from death to life because we loveeach other... Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and intruth."
It is not uncommon for Muslim pupils in Belgium to go toCatholic schools which can be seen as more conservative or moreexclusive than state schools.
The Paris attacks' suspected mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaouda Belgian killed during a raid in Paris suburb St Denis on Nov.18 had at 12 won a scholarship to an elite Catholic school.
REUTERS