The brother of Najim Laachraoui, one of the alleged Brussels airport bombing terrorists, qualified for the Rio Olympics on Thursday as a Taekwondo athlete.
Mourad Laachraoui stated, ”You don’t choose your family,” and that he was trying to “turn the page” on the infamy his brother’s jihadism brought to Belgium’s capital back in March.
The 21-year-old silver medal winner at the Summer Universiades in 2015 explained that he and his brother hadn’t seen each other since Najim left for Syria in 2013.
Sports Illustrated reported that Mourad and his family told reporters that they “had just as many questions about his brother’s acts as they did.”
Mourad Laachraoui’s lawyer said after the attacks on March 22 that killed 32 people, “It’s crazy, they were born into the same family, they received the same education and one turns everything white and the other black, even very, very black.”
According to an AFP story, Mourad said, ”I have no idea why my brother turned (to terrorism). We didn’t see any change when he became radicalized.”
Najim Laachraoui’s DNA also turned up on a suicide vest at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris where Islamic terrorists opened fired killing 90 people back in November.
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