The brother of two men suspected to have taken part in last week's terrorist attacks in Paris told reporters on Tuesday that his siblings seemed "normal" before the incident, and advised his surviving brother to turn himself in to the police.
Mohamed Abdselam spoke to TV networks near his home in Brussels, Belgium, just days after European authorities arrested and interrogated him for 36 hours before releasing him. His brother Ibrahim is believed to have died on Friday after detonating a suicide vest on the Boulevard Voltaire. His other brother, Salah, remains on the lam and has become the most wanted man in Europe.
"My brother who participated in this terrorist attack was probably psychologically ready to commit such an act," a visibly shocked Abdselam told CNN. "These are not regular people. [They have been prepared not to leave] any trace that could cause suspicion that they could do such things. And even if you saw them every day their behavior was quite normal."
Abdselam told the network that he and his brothers lived with their parents in an apartment in Molenbeek, a suburb of Brussels popular with immigrants from the Middle East. Some of the assailants involved in recent attacks against a Jewish supermarket in Paris and against the Jewish museum of Brussels reportedly purchased their weapons in the neighborhood.
Both of Abdselam's brothers were reportedly known to Belgian authorities. One of them, Ibrahim, was deported from Turkey back to Belgium after attempting to go to Syria, CNN reported.
Abdselam told CNN that he doesn't know Salah's whereabouts, but that he's worried his brother could kill more people. In a separate interview with BFM TV, Abdselam called for Salah to surrender to justice.
“Evidently I advise him to surrender to the police,” Abdselam told BFM TV. “We are family, we are thinking of him, we are asking ourselves where he is, whether he is afraid. But the right thing to do would be to surrender to justice.”
