A dead silence reigned in the courtroom this Thursday at the trial of the attacks in Brussels on March 22, 2016, while photos, sometimes very hard to see, of the deceased victims were released by the investigators. Intriguing testimonies were also presented. “Two police officers take turns at the microphone. First, they recount the moment when they arrive at this airport, on March 22, around 9 a.m., the total chaos that reigns there. There is no coordination, there is no no more means of communication, everyone is running in all directions”, says our journalist Dominique Demoulin in the RTL INFO 19h. She attended the hearing on Thursday.
The police first show diagrams, with zones. They show where every item, every piece of evidence, every victim is. “Then, suddenly, from the diagrams, we switch to the photos”, explains Dominique Demoulin. The latter have each time taken care to warn those present in the room of the impending appearance of difficult shots. “A first body photo is Gail, she was about to take a flight to New York. She has no legs. There is Bruce, Sacha, Jennifer… There is a brother and a sister who never made it to the New York wedding they were to attend.”
Among the victims, there is also Fabienne. His brother was in the courtroom on Thursday. “It was very difficult this afternoon, when we give the characters of the people, it touched me even more than the images, because I am directly connected with my sister. It’s how I knew her, she will remain in my memory for life”says Philippe Vansteenkiste, brother of a victim of the Brussels attacks.
16 bodies in total
In all, 16 bodies were shown. The court was able to see the mutilated and burned bodies of the victims who died after the first explosion, which occurred at 7:58 a.m. near the check-in counter of the American company Delta Airlines. Some had sometimes lost part of their clothes due to the blast of the explosion. The images of the bust, a fingertip and part of the arm of the suicide bomber, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, were shown to the court.
In addition to the snapshots of the victims and the perpetrator, many images of the chaos created by the explosion have been broadcast, with debris everywhere, projectile impacts on the walls, seats literally flying in the air and a ceiling collapsed in which pieces of clothing and even luggage were found.
In their testimony, the investigators notably returned to the discovery of the lifeless body of a woman, which later turned out that the two children were playing in an area dedicated to them in the terminal where the first detonation took place. . The father of the family had gone to the toilet just before the explosion and then found his dying wife. He then went in search of his daughters and found them, one in a state of shock in the arms of another woman, the other being treated among the wounded.
The investigators also explained that they encountered, during their work, which could not begin until around 11:30 a.m., at least 10 to 20 people still passing on the scene in panic. Some came from another floor, others had hidden in the conveyor belts of the suitcases and did not come out until well after, once they thought they were safe, they said. “It was not an ideal situation.” The two investigators say, finally, that they had to take, with their teams, “risks” to make their first findings, not knowing if a bomb was still buried under the rubble.
Last day of hearing
It was the last hearing day of the year, and without a doubt the most trying. In January, the other crime scene, that of Maelbeek, will be described by the investigators. “Probably in the same silence as today, a dead silence”concluded our journalist.