2023-09-16 06:07:11
The longest trial in Belgian judicial history ended Friday mid-evening. The sentences were handed down against the eight defendants found guilty last July, seven of whom were present in the box, Osama Atar, the instigator, being presumed dead in Syria.
We will mainly note that for Salah Abdeslam and Sofien Ayari, no new sentence was pronounced by the Assize Court, jurors and professional magistrates referring for the sentences to the two convictions already pronounced, one in Paris, the other in Brussels for the shooting on rue du Dries.
Osama Krayem fares less well. He is sentenced to life imprisonment. In Paris he received a 30-year prison sentence. The harshest sentence concerning him was therefore handed down on the Belgian side, the Assize Court considering that by priming the bomb of one of the El Bakraoui brothers and by continuing his terrorist drift in Belgium after having seen what happened having passed through Paris, he was not entitled to any clemency. He also transported explosives between hideouts and made purchases essential to the terrorist group.
Measured sanction against Ali El Haddad Asufi if we take into account that he was found guilty of participation in the attacks. The prosecution requested life imprisonment. But the jury and the court took into account several mitigating circumstances to finally sentence him to 20 years of imprisonment which he will have to serve in Belgium.
Mohamed Abrini is sentenced to 30 years, which avoids pronouncing life imprisonment twice. He was sentenced in Paris to life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years. But unlike Salah Abdeslam, Mohamed Abrini requested in due time to serve his sentence in Belgium.
Concerning Hervé Bayingana-Muhirwa, despite the maximum sentence of 10 years which was imposed, given the length of his preventive detention, he should be able to leave prison soon or at the very least benefit from an adjustment of the sentence which remains to be purge.
Bilal El Makhoukhi, who was not tried in Paris, like Osama Atar, received life imprisonment. He is one of those most heavily sanctioned, in particular because of his personality traits and because he favored his ties of loyalty with “the group” by not giving information on what became of the weapons always in nature.
It should also be noted that the Assize Court did not grant any of the requests for deprivation of nationality requested by the prosecution.
Concerning Osama Atar, the court responded favorably to the request for immediate arrest required by the magistrates of the federal prosecutor’s office. Because although he is presumed dead in the Iraqi-Syrian zone, in the absence of proof of his death, it cannot be excluded that he is still alive. And in this case, he could be immediately arrested and transferred to Belgium.
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