BRUSSELS: A Tunisian man on trial in Belgium alongside Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam may have been a bigger player in the militant Islamic State group than first thought, investigators say.

Sofiane Ayari, 24, took a purely supporting role on Monday as the world’s attention focused on Abdeslam at their trial over a 2016 gunbattle in Brussels that led to their capture.

But a Belgian police file attached to the case of the Nov 13, 2015 Paris attacks paints a different picture of the young man from Tunis, who confided to a friend his “desire to die a martyr”.

The document alleged that Ayari, who is being held in prison near the Belgian city of Liege, was “asked to return to Europe in order to also take part in terrorist acts”.

And it said Ayari may have also been implicated in an attack in Tunis on a bus carrying presidential security forces that killed 12 people in November 2015, although it did not explain how he could have been involved when he was in Belgium at the time.

France has also asked Belgium to hand him over for a possible indictment over the role in preparing the Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed.

Ayari was captured with Abde­slam in Brussels three days after the shootout. Prosecutors said they thought Ayari and a third jihadist, an Algerian who was killed in the gunbattle, had opened fire on police, which Ayari denies.

The Tunisian has so far avoided fully answering questions about his support for IS, which claimed both the Paris and Brussels attacks.

He admitted joining IS in the war-torn country at “the end of 2014” after abandoning his studies at university.

Ayari, who wore a tracksuit and had scars on his neck and jaw, sounded ambivalent about IS when asked how he felt about the group now.

“I don’t think I am a radical,” he said, adding that “you can’t agree 100 per cent with IS”.

But when asked if he agreed with IS attacks outside Syria — the group claimed many including the Paris and Brussels attacks — he replied: “That’s their business.” During his testimony he dodged several specific questions and also switched between French and Arabic, which had to be translated by an interpreter.

Investigators said Ayari arrived in Europe via the Greek island of Leros on September 20, 2015 during the migration crisis, as did several of the Paris attackers.

He registered on October 1 in Germany, where he is believed to have arrived with two other members of the Paris-Brussels terror cell: Osama Krayem and Ahmed Alkhald.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2018