French authorities Tuesday charged a suspected Islamic State "scout" believed to have helped a key organiser of the 2015 Paris attacks and the perpetrator of a foiled train attack enter Europe.
Prosecutors charged Bilal Chatra, a 21-year-old from Algeria, with complicity in an attempted terrorist assassination and association with terrorist criminals, according to a source close to the enquiry.
The source said Chatra was "suspected of playing the role of a scout", helping train shooter Ayoub El Khazzani and Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the organisers of the November 2015 Paris attacks, get into Europe via the Balkans migrant route.
Khazzani shot and seriously injured a passenger on a high-speed Thalys train between Amsterdam and Paris before being overpowered by two off-duty US servicemen and their friend.
He travelled to northern Europe with Abaaoud, one of the Paris attacks cell who opened fire on bars, restaurants and a concert hall before he died in a police shootout shortly afterwards.
According to a probe source, Abaaoud ordered Chatra to "scope out the checkpoints in different countries along the migrant route", a mission that took him to Greece, Serbia and Austria.
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