Athens rejects scenarios Brussels terrorist attacks were planned in Greece: police sources

Greek police sources dismissed on Tuesday international media reports the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels that caused more than 30 deaths and around 300 injuries were planned in Greece, according to a report in local daily newspaper, Vima.

Greek counter terrorism officials speaking on condition of anonymity to the newspaper confirmed that at least four key suspects in the attacks in Belgium and the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris had passed through Greece.

According to Vima's report, Greek police officers confirmed Italian media reports that Khalid el Bakraoui, the suicide bomber who attacked the Brussels subway on March 22, had flown to Athens from Venice last July.

His brother, Brussels airport bomber Ibrahim el Bakraoui, was also confirmed to have passed through Greece last year before being arrested in Turkey, according to the Greek police sources.

Khalid el Bakraoui is believed to have travelled from Greece either to Turkey to join his brother or to Italy to find Salah Abdeslam, the suspected Paris attacker who was arrested in Brussels on March 18.

Abdeslam also traveled by ferry from Italy to Greece's Patras port in August 2015, according to the same sources.

Abdeslam is believed to have been picked up from Patras by Nazim Lachraoui, the second Brussels suicide bomber who attacked the airport, to take him to Italy after the latter's training in Syria.

Greek police officers stressed that in all cases the "suspects stayed in Greece only for a few hours."

They strongly rejected the scenario that the Brussels attacks were organized in Greece.

The same sources noted that following the Paris deadly attacks, Europol and other European authorities, ended up with a list of some 7,700 European citizens suspected of links to the Islamic State (IS).

According to the same report, there were currently 18,752 names of suspects of connection with jihadists in Europol's database which collects information on individuals who have travelled from Europe to the Middle East and vice versa for "unclear reasons."

A year ago, the Greek officials stressed, this list of suspects contained only some 3,600 names. Endit