A MIGRANTS’ rights activist suspected of being the surviving Brussels airport bomber known as the “man in the hat” was yesterday charged with terrorism offences by Belgian police.

Fayçal Cheffou, 35, born in Belgium to Moroccan parents, was charged with membership of a terrorist group, terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder.

Cheffou is thought to be the man in a dark hat and light jacket seen in CCTV footage pushing a trolley through the airport next to Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, who both blew themselves up.

In a video uploaded to YouTube two years ago, Cheffou reports from outside an immigration detention centre in the Belgian province of Steenokkerzeel.

With shouting and banging clearly audible from the building in the background, he claims the migrants and asylum seekers are protesting inside because they have not been fed.

After reporting that meal times at the centre mean dinner stops at 10pm, meaning that Muslims fasting for Ramadan cannot eat, Cheffou tells the camera they have been “totally forgotten by the rest of the world”.

A description beneath the video said “fundamental freedoms” were being violated, adding: “Belgian Muslims must act urgently to stop the abuses.”

It was unclear if Cheffou wrote the description for the footage, which was posted in July 2014 on a YouTube channel whose name translates as “The Oppressed”.

With more than 900 subscribers, the most recent video was uploaded in February and subjects include alleged human rights abuses against Palestinians, the Quran, police brutality and reporting on Hasna Ait Boulahcen, who died in a raid linked to the Paris attacks.

“I was not surprised about the fact that he was a journalist, it’s a good cover,” a government official told POLITICO.