Belgian prosecutors said late on Sunday they had asked for a person arrested in Greece to be extradited over a possible link with a foiled Islamist plot to attack Belgian police.

“Further analysis of the elements of our investigation gave us enough reasons to ask for the extradition of one of the persons that were arrested yesterday by the Greek authorities,” the federal prosecutors’ office said in a statement.

Earlier a spokesman had said no connection had been established between events in Belgium, where police killed two gunmen during raids in the east Belgian town of Verviers, and the detention in Greece of more than half a dozen people.

Belgian authorities found that members of the Islamist cell in Verviers called a contact in Greece regularly.

Greek officers were given the identity of the man, who, like the three suspects in the Belgian raid, had recently returned from fighting in Syria. Reports in Belgium suggest that the suspect in Greece was the brother of one of the alleged extremists and had been coordinating the group’s movements. One TV channel, VTM, reported that he is of Algerian descent.

Sources also revealed that in November, Greek authorities were asked by their French counterparts to interview three families who had tried to travel together from France to Syria to fight in the civil war. The 16 people were questioned for 12 hours by Greek police, who also searched their cars. Nothing suspicious was found and they were escorted to board a ferry bound for Italy.

Source: Kathimerini