(VOVworld) - Belgian authorities have announced the arrest of a ninth suspect linked to last month's Paris attacks, a man they say had been in contact with the suspected ringleader's cousin.

Two Belgian police officers patrol the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 27, 2015.  (Photo: Michael Probst/AP/File)

The Belgian federal prosecutor's office said the suspect, whose full name was not disclosed but who was referred to as Abdoullah C, 30 years old, is being held on charges of taking part in a terrorist group and terrorist murders.

His arrest occurred Tuesday, the prosecutor's office said.

The suspect, a Belgian citizen born in 1985, was in contact several times with Hasna Ait Boulahcen following the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris in which 130 people died.

Both Ait Boulahcen and her cousin Abdelhamid Abaooud, the attacks' suspected ringleader, were killed when French police besieged their hideout north of Paris.