One of the suicide bombers involved in the deadly attacks in Brussels last month had previously worked as a clearer at the European Parliament, officials said Thursday.
The news comes as Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel admitted that the terrorist attacks, which killed 31 people and injured hundreds more, represented a security “failure,” the BBC reported.
Officials did not name the attacker, but sources told the BBC he is Najim Laachraoui, one of the two men who blew themselves up at the Brussels airport.
The EU Parliament said Laachraoui worked as a cleaner in 2009 and 2010. The Parliament said that the cleaning firm had provided proof that the person hired for the job had no criminal record at the time.
“As required by the contract, the cleaning firm submitted proof of the absence of a criminal record to the European Parliament,” the Parliament said in a statement, according to International Business Times.
Mr. Michel on Wednesday dismissed the notion that his country was a “failed state.”
“When there is an attack like that of course that’s a failure and nobody can deny this,” Michel told reporters in Brussels, according to Agence France-Presse. But “I cannot accept the idea that we’re a failed state.”
Belgium has tightened security in the aftermath of the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State.
Mr. Michel said that 30 measures were being put in place, including a ban on prepaid mobile phone cards.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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