2023-09-03 17:21:23
The trial of the attacks resumes Monday with the debate on the sentences. The indictments will be interrupted because the civil court must examine a request from Salah Abdeslam’s lawyers.
The trial of the attacks of March 22, 2016, adjourned on July 25 after the guilty verdict, will resume this Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. at Justitia in Haren. The president of the Brussels Assize Court will immediately give the floor to prosecutors Bernard Michel and Paule Somers for their indictment on the sentences during the morning. The hearing will then be suspended until Tuesday to give way, Monday afternoon, in the same room, to a civil debate in summary proceedings opposing Salah Abdeslam to the Belgian State.
The jury of the Brussels Assize Court found eight of the 10 defendants guilty, in a judgment delivered on July 25.. Six of the eight men are guilty of murder, attempted murder and membership in a terrorist group. They are Osama Atar (presumed dead), Mohamed Abrini, Osama Krayem, Salah Abdeslam, Ali El Haddad Asufi and Bilal El Makhoukhi. The other two are only for belonging to a terrorist group. They are Sofien Ayari and Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa.
Salah Abdeslam’s acocats are asking that he be able to serve his sentence in Belgium.
Monday morning, the two federal prosecutors will begin their indictment, mentioning for each of the eight concerned the sentence they think the jury and the court should impose. The two magistrates will be interrupted at midday, because the civil court of Brussels must urgently examine a request from Salah Abdeslam’s lawyers. They ask the judge to find that the transfer of their client from Belgium to France, which should take place at the end of the assize trial in Brussels, is illegal. They request that Salah Abdeslam be able to serve his sentence in Belgium.
The latter should in theory return to France to serve the prison sentence to which he was sentenced by the special assize court of Paris, whose proceedings were held before those of the Brussels Assize Court. On June 29, 2022, Abdelsam was sentenced by the Parisian court to an irreducible life sentence for his role in the attacks of November 13, 2015 in the French capital. He was then transferred to a Belgian prison in order to be able to appear at his trial for the attacks of March 22, 2016 in Brussels, which began at Justitia in Haren last December.
Salah Abdeslam faces a new life sentence.
On July 25, Salah Abdeslam was found guilty by the Brussels jury of murders and attempted murders in a terrorist context as well as of belonging to a terrorist group. He therefore faces a further life sentence.
The indictment of federal prosecutors will resume Tuesday morning. The floor will then be given to the lawyers of the eight culprits and finally to the latter for their possible last words. The jury will leave for a second time in deliberation, in which the three judges of the court will take part this time. The verdict will be pronounced in open court, which will close the criminal part of this extraordinary trial.
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