2023-09-15 19:51:50
The final point of the criminal aspect of the trial for the attacks of March 22, 2016 in Brussels fell on Friday, with the announcement of the sentences of the eight men convicted of terrorism.
The jury and the court, meeting as a panel, reached this Friday, after five days of deliberation, a verdict concerning the sentences to be imposed on the eight men convicted of terrorism in the trial of the attacks of March 22, 2016 in Brussels, which left 35 dead and hundreds injured.
The president of the Brussels Assize Court, Laurence Massart, began, at 8:11 p.m., reading the judgment containing the verdict on the sentences. The sentences fell 1 hour 15 minutes later.
Mohamed Abrini was sentenced to 30 years in prison and placed at the disposal of the sentence enforcement court for 5 years for his participation in the attacks of March 22, 2016 in Brussels. The Brussels Assize Court, on the other hand, decided not to strip the Belgian-Moroccan of his Belgian nationality, who had given up on blowing himself up on the day of the events at Zaventem airport.
Salah Abdeslam et Sofien Ayari will not be sentenced to additional prison time. The court refers to the sentence handed down against them in the trial of the shooting on rue du Dries in Forest, i.e. 20 years.
Bilal El Makhoukhi was sentenced to life imprisonment and placed at the disposal of the sentence enforcement court for 10 years.
Oussama Atar was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment and placed at the disposal of the sentence enforcement court for 14 years.
Osama Krayem was sentenced to life imprisonment and placed at the disposal of the sentence enforcement court for 10 years. The Swede, who had given up on blowing himself up in the Brussels metro, was notably one of the members of the terrorist cell most active in manufacturing the bombs.
Ali El Haddad Asufi was sentenced to 20 years in prison and placed at the disposal of the sentence enforcement court (TAP) for 10 years. This man was one of the closest friends of the suicide bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui and had, according to the jury, “given up on acquiring more precise knowledge” of what his accomplice was plotting.
Hervé Equally Blessed was sentenced Friday to 10 years’ imprisonment, the maximum incurred for this charge, and a fine of 3,000 euros. The original Rwandan, on the other hand, was not stripped of his Belgian nationality.
A little over a year after the preliminary hearing, the curtain fell on the criminal aspect of this trial. A possible appeal to the Court of Cassation by either party cannot be ruled out and could lead to new procedures.
An extraordinary trial
Last July 25after more than seven months of debate, the jury of the Brussels Assize Court found eight of the ten accused guilty. Six of the eight men are accused of murder, attempted assassination and membership of a terrorist group. They are Oussama Atar (presumed dead), Mohamed Abrini, Osama Krayem, Salah Abdeslam, Ali El Haddad Asufi and Bilal El Makhoukhi. The other two are only for belonging to a terrorist group. They are Sofien Ayari and Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa. The last two, the Smail brothers and Ibrahim Farisi, were acquitted.
After a month’s break in August for the judicial holidays, theThe trial resumed on Monday September 4 to begin the debate on penalties. The prosecution then requested life imprisonment accompanied by 15 years of provision to the sentencing court, i.e. maximum sentence in Belgiumagainst the six co-perpetrators of the attacks.
Salah Abdeslam sent back to France?
On Wednesday, the Brussels civil court, sitting in summary proceedings, rejected Salah Abdeslam’s request to prohibit the Belgian state from returning him to detention in France after the assize trial in Brussels and to authorize him to serve his sentence in Belgium. His lawyers pointed out the risk of inhuman and degrading treatment if he was sent back to a French prison.
Salah Abdeslam was sentenced by the Paris Special Assize Court in June 2022 to an irreducible life prison sentence, for his role in the attacks of November 13, 2015 in the French capital. He was then “loaned” by France to Belgium, via an agreement between the two countries, in July 2022, in order to be able to appear at his trial for the attacks of March 22, 2016.
Around twenty victims demonstrated in front of Justitia to denounce their situation
Around twenty victims organized an action on Friday in front of Justitia, where the verdict on the sentences in the trial for the attacks of March 22, 2016 in Brussels was delivered early in the evening. Gathered under the aegis of the victims’ association Life4Brussels, these people were dressed in clothing displaying a message denouncing their situation. They also wonder what will happen to them once the trial is over.
The reading of the verdict on the sentences in fact put an end to the criminal aspect of this historic trial. Victims therefore fear being permanently forgotten and worry about no longer being heard.. “We have been completely abandoned, left to our own devices”; “I was never informed of my rights”; ‘I have never been taken care of by the Belgian state, although it had an obligation to do so’; ‘We were mistreated by certain expert doctors’. These are some of the situations they were keen to denounce on Friday .
To do this, they wore white t-shirts or sweaters with messages such as “Classified waste”, “Ignored children” or even “Victims never compensated”.
After gathering in front of the Justitia, around twenty of these people took their places in the courtroom to listen to the verdict on the sentences against the eight defendants found guilty. “This trial has highlighted the suffering and difficulties that these victims have faced for more than seven years. It is with the same enthusiasm that victims, first responders, and experts came to testify at the bar, of their despair in the face of this abandonment which truly amplified their trauma”, criticizes Life4Brussels. “Today, their anger is no longer directed only against the perpetrators of the attacks, but also against the Belgian state, which contributed to accentuating their distress,” the association underlined.
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