2023-09-30 17:59:00
These are two young lawyers who intervened during the trial of the attacks of March 22, 2016 in Zaventem and Maelbeek which had its epilogue on September 15. On Monday, we will know if this case can definitively be placed in the legal annals. This will be the last day to file a cassation appeal.
During this historic trial, Mr. Jonathan De Taye defended Ali El Haddad Asufi, sentenced to 20 years in prison for his participation in the terrorist group and for assassinations in a terrorist context. Me Guillaume Lys defended the interests of victims grouped within the V-Europe association. They were adversaries before the Assize Court. But in everyday life, Jonathan De Taye and Guillaume Lys are friends. For La Libre, they look back on this extraordinary trial which mobilized them for almost a year.
“Justice has been done”, “A huge relief”, “Not satisfied at all”: reactions to the verdict in the Brussels attacks trial
Brussels after Paris
For Jonathan De Taye, who defended Ali El Haddad El Asufi before the Paris Assize Court for his involvement in the attacks of November 13 in Paris, it is even two years of finding himself on the bench before the same customer. And it’s very heavy: “The lawyers are there at 9 a.m., leave at 7 p.m., they have visits to the prison, study the file. We hardly do anything else anymore. With Stanislas Eskénazi (Mohamed Abrini’s lawyer, Editor’s note), we left Paris, I don’t know how we did it. We had two years in court. It’s like a marathon runner. One must keep. I’m going to wipe off the casts. Two years in court, that destroys a law firm, that destroys a private life.”
Me Guillaume Lys agrees. “Today we are on our knees. It’s the start of the legal year. We are therefore consulted in all directions. You have to find the energy. We will suffer the backlash. It was like we were in a tunnel.”
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In assize trials, there are hitches, incidents during the hearings. But personally, afterwards, I have a coffee with the man to whom I sent a Scud during the debates.
The two lawyers already had several assize courts under their belt. So they knew how much it could weigh. “One of my associates told me, before my first trial, that a week-long trial drains you for a week: you can no longer do anything. After two years in court, imagine. It’s like a cyclist after a big race: there’s the euphoria of having finished, but it’s the next day that he gets the aches and pains.”
Being adversaries on the issue and friends in life has no influence on their work, they say. They sort things out. “In assize trials, there are hiccups, incidents during the hearings. But, personally, afterwards, I have a coffee with the man to whom I sent a Scud during the debates. However, some cannot do it,” explains Jonathan De Taye. As Guillaume Lys confirms: “This is not the case with all colleagues. It was sometimes quite tense.”
©waiter ennio
The criminal court “bubble”
In any case, a very particular climate is created during assize trials, which, unlike criminal trials, last for days. “There is this notion of a criminal court bubble for lawyers and other justice actors. It’s obviously different for the parties involved,” says Guillaume Lys.
Civil party lawyer, while Jonathan De Taye is in the defense, Guillaume Lys was perhaps in a more uncomfortable situation behind the scenes of the trial, with the man who is also a friend. “We try not to show our personal affinities too much. Even if it doesn’t change anything about our work. I know his positions in relation to the file which were absolutely not mine. We talked about it quite heatedly. But that doesn’t change the relationship behind it. We just have slightly different jobs on this trial. I often find myself on the defense side. I know what being a defense attorney is. It’s sometimes a little difficult to explain to some customers.”
Jonathan De Taye, unlike Guillaume Lys, was also a lawyer at the Paris attacks trial where his client, Ali El Haddad Asufi, was sentenced to ten years in prison. He can’t help but draw a comparison between the two trials: “It’s a shame that we were ‘excommunicated’ in Evere. I have the impression that civil society was much less involved in Brussels because, in Paris, the trial was held where it was supposed to be held, that is to say in the center of the city.
Guillaume Lys shares this criticism: “I understand the security constraints. Perhaps the old palace wasn’t quite suitable. But there was a bunker side that was heavy. And we had seven years to organize. A bunker side facing NATO gave a military symbol rather than the process of civil society which deals with terrorism”.
However, Guillaume Lys notes that this will not have dissuaded the victims from coming to testify. “They were not afraid. Tongues were loosened. This made it possible to counteract this bunker affair which remains extremely regrettable.”
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Hearing the policies could have provided answers to victims who are wondering: why wasn’t the metro closed when there were two explosions in Zaventem?”
But Jonathan De Taye does not budge. He continues to prefer Paris where, after the hearings, defense lawyers, civil party lawyers and even victims who are civil parties could meet in a café or terrace after the hearings. “Everything that happens in an assize trial, everything that happens on the fringes of the courtroom and which, in a long trial has an influence in the courtroom, has been lost. It was predictable and it’s a shame.”
A missed opportunity
In Paris, former President François Hollande was summoned as a witness: “I will probably never have the opportunity to ask the President of the Republic a question again,” smiles Jonathan De Taye. Guillaume Lys regrets that in Brussels, no leading politician was summoned, even if this would not have led to anything regarding the guilt of the accused. “This could have provided answers to victims who are wondering: why didn’t we close the metro when there were two explosions in Zaventem?”
As defense lawyer, Jonathan De Taye, believes that politicizing the debate brought nothing. “But as a citizen, I find it a shame that there wasn’t one.” For him, however, it was easier to have the words of politicians in Paris “because the French had a good time attacking the Belgians. It’s easier to sue your neighbor.”
For Guillaume Lys, however, there remain frustrations: the enigma Atar, who will become the person behind the attacks after he was not prevented from leaving Belgium. State security did not respond to questions. “We found ourselves in a situation where there could be a moment of truth with a possible mea culpa. We lost this moment.”
However, this was not a surprise for the lawyer, who highlights a second frustration. In an assize trial, defendants sometimes provide answers. But, at the trial of the attacks, “in their responses, the accused, whose guilt was not in doubt, preferred to retreat behind their initial positions without extending a hand towards the victims who simply asked to understand things. It wouldn’t have changed their guilt. This could even have reduced the sentences handed down.”
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