Abrini had not been directly linked to the Brussels attacks until now.
Abrini has been tied to the terror attacks on Paris last November through surveillance video and DNA. Authorities now can question him about the Brussels airport bombing on March 22, part of the attacks that killed 32 people.
At the press conference Friday night, Belgium’s deputy federal prosecutor Thierry Wert said investigators were still looking into whether Abrini was “the man in the hat” at the airport.
Abrini, a 31-year-old Belgian, has been on Europe’s most wanted list since the November 13 Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed.
He was last seen two days before the attacks in a motorway service station CCTV video driving with another Paris attacks suspect – Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested last month – towards the French capital from Belgium.
Separately, Osama K and another man, named as Herve BM, were picked up on Friday morning in Brussels.
Osama K has been identified by Belgian media as Swedish national Osama Krayem.
Prosecutors say he is suspected of helping suicide bomber Khalid el-Bakraoui at the Maelbeek metro station, as well as buying, in a Brussels shopping mall, the sports bags used to hide the airport and metro station bombs.
Both the Paris and Brussels attacks have been claimed by the IS group.
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