Belgium charges top jihadi expert over false affidavit

BRUSSELS: Belgian prosecutors said Monday they have arrested a high-profile expert on jihadi fighters and charged him with providing a suspected extremist with a false affidavit that he was on a dera-dicalisation course.

Montasser AlDe’emeh runs a centre in Brussels’ gritty Molenbeek district — where several of those who carried out November’s Paris attacks lived — that aims to prevent young Belgians from going to fight in Syria and also help reintegrate those who do so on their return.