(JTA) — Belgian police released a man they had arrested after the Brussels Jewish museum shooting on suspicion of terrorist activity.
The man was released Wednesday, one day after his arrest, the Belga news agency reported.
According to Belga, the man had been taken into custody because of his suspected involvement in helping Belgian Muslims leave for Syria to fight in the civil war there.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for Belgium’s Federal Police denied a report by the VTM broadcaster that said the man was arrested in connection with the slaying of four people Saturday at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in central Brussels. The unidentified gunman remains at large.
“Following the events last Saturday, the Federal Police prioritized certain cases,” Wenke Roggen of the Federal Police told Belga on Tuesday. “In one of those cases, which concerned involvement in a certain activity of a terrorist group, an individual was deprived of their freedom. A priori, at this moment there is no link to what happened Saturday.”
The Le Soir daily quoted police sources as saying the man was arrested in connection with a different crime that was committed on the same street as the museum, Miniemes Street.
On Sunday, Belgian police released security camera footage of the shooting and asked for the public’s help in catching the shooter, an accomplice who drove him to the museum and anyone else involved in the crime.
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