Salah Abdeslam is at the heart of the trial of the Brussels attacks which began a few weeks ago. Since his arrest in 2015, the Brussels resident has been talked about a lot. The last survivor of the commando of the Paris attacks uses everything he can to destabilize the trial in which he is involved.
“It is clear that an assize trial is a power game between the different actors in this trial“, dissects Michaël Dantinne, professor at the University of Liège in the Department of Criminology, Law and Political Science. “When one is accused, one starts in a position of inferiority. He understood that he still had a shred of power to influence the debates and the way they unfold. We saw it during the Paris trial and we see it here, this power dynamic began even before the start of the trial with the story of the defendants’ box and it continues with the conditions of transfer from prison to the palace of righteousness. Salah Abdeslam, like others, plays on this card to influence things. We see that with a very small position of power, we manage to change the chronological order of the course of the debates.“
Is Abdeslam smart?
His lawyers talked about the intelligence of an empty ashtray, referring to their client. An argument that the professor refutes. “Is don’t see it that way at all. I think he’s even a smart guy. He clearly identified the logic of power inherent in an assize trial. He is someone who is very concerned about his image. When we reread the psychiatric expert report that was drawn up for the Paris trial, we see it. He’s someone who can refuse to talk because he doesn’t agree with the media portrait that is made of him. He masters the codes relatively well and is quite a strategist, so I think he’s an intelligent person.“
The trial of the Brussels bombings is “gone quite dramatically“. “With power games that started very early, with the politics of the empty chair. I don’t see a way out of this.” regrets the expert.
“I think that each of the protagonists, whatever their role, must be self-critical because there is a decency that is due to the memory of the victims and that of those who are still survivors that is not met by a really messy start to the trial“, concludes Michaël Dantinne.