The trial of the Brussels terrorist attacks opened this week. But on the third day of the trial, cfive defendants decided to leave the courtroom. They denounce their conditions of transfer: stripped naked for the searches, hard rock music in the ears and an accused would have lost consciousness after an armbar from a policeman.
Ali El Too bad Sufi strongly opposed his transfer to the courtroom of the Assize Court, according to a report drawn up Thursday morning by the Brussels police. The accused had asked Thursday morning to receive medical assistance after having explained at the start of the hearing that he had been strangled by a policeman during his extraction from the prison of His for its transfer to Justice.
He also explained that he lost consciousness. A forensic doctor appointed by the president of the assize court, Laurence Massartfound that the accused had injuries consistent with the facts he said he had suffered.
Jonathan De trimlawyer for Ali El Haddad Asufi, accused of providing logistical support to the perpetrators of the attacks, spoke on the set of Cisn’t every day Sunday. “My client never complained. He collaborated in the investigation for 6 years. He appeared for a year at the Paris trial. And at this trial, there were also security measures and also strip searches and delicate transfers. There was also solitary confinement in prison. Here, the problem is the method and the way“, says the lawyer.
“Ce what is revealing is the aggression of which he was the victim. He complained in open court. The same day, he is threatened by a hooded man, the next day, he is strangled to fainting by a hooded man (Editor’s note: a member of the police).“
Jonathan De trim insists that his client “wants to participate in his trial“.
The defendants could-they boycott the trial “in solidarity” with Ali El Too bad Sufi ?
The victims expect a lot from the explanation of the defendants, explains the lawyer. “This is not a denial of the suffering of the victims, quite the contrary. And in Paris, an accused had decided to make right to silence, who is Mr. Sofiane Caravanand who released his word after hearing the victims“.
On the question of whether his client could remain silent in protest, Jonathan De trim replies that “no one can say what will happen tomorrow, but that there is a willingness to speak out and participate in the trial on the part of of, I think so, all accused, and that’s what’s unfortunate“. He says there is no doubt about it.