Brussels attacks: Long prison sentences for Islamists

2023-09-16 05:06:03

This was announced by a jury in the Belgian capital on Friday. The men had already been found guilty in July of, among other things, terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder, and now it was a question of the exact sentence.

According to the information, the prison sentences ranged from ten years to life imprisonment. A 30-year prison sentence was imposed on 38-year-old Belgian Mohamed Abrini. Salah Abdeslam, the main perpetrator of the 2015 Paris attacks, who was also charged in Brussels, received no additional prison sentence because he had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison for another crime in Belgium.

The terrorist attacks at the Belgian capital’s airport and at a subway station on March 22, 2016 left 35 people dead and 340 injured.

Unlike the decision on guilt and innocence in July, the twelve jurors did not decide alone, but together with the court. Since Monday, the jury as well as the chairwoman of the court and her two associate judges have been housed in an unknown location for deliberations and isolated from the outside world. At the beginning of September, the public prosecutor’s office called for life sentences for Abrini and Abdeslam.

“Man in a Hat”

Abrini was also supposed to detonate an explosive belt at Brussels airport. Prosecutor Bernard Michel explained in his plea that he was one of the “pillars” of the terrorist cell. Abrini testified in the trial that he shrank from committing the crime at the last moment when he saw women and children in the queue. He was seen in images from a surveillance camera alongside the two other airport bombers who detonated their explosives shortly afterwards and was initially described as a “man in a hat”.

Abdeslam, who turned 34 on Friday, was the only surviving member of the Paris terror squad. According to the judges, he was also part of the terrorist cell. After he had already “terrorized France,” he wanted to continue his religious war in Belgium and kill innocent people, prosecutor Paule Somers said. Abdeslam denied his involvement in the Brussels attacks. He was arrested in Belgium four days before the attacks. During the trial, Abdeslam demanded that his sentence be served in Belgium and described prison conditions in France as inhumane.

Life imprisonment for three defendants

Three defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday. One of them, Oussama Atar, considered the initiator of the Paris and Brussels attacks, was convicted in absentia. It is believed that he died in Syria. The court also imposed prison sentences of ten and 20 years on two other defendants.

It was the largest jury trial ever to take place in Belgium. The public interest in the trial with more than 900 co-plaintiffs was huge – which is why the trial was held in converted rooms at the former NATO headquarters in the northeast of the city.