Attacks in Belgium
Long prison sentences in Brussels terror trial
September 15, 2023, 11:03 p.m
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In the end, the court assumes 35 dead and hundreds injured: In March 2016, several Islamists blew themselves up in Belgium’s capital. Seven and a half years after the attacks, the trial against several men is now ending.
In the trial surrounding the Islamist attacks in Brussels in 2016, which left dozens dead and hundreds injured, several men were sentenced to long prison sentences. This was announced by a jury in the Belgian capital, according to the Belga news agency. According to the information, the prison sentences ranged from ten years to life imprisonment.
Accordingly, a prison sentence of 30 years was imposed on the 38-year-old Belgian Mohamed Abrini. The court did not impose any additional punishment on 33-year-old Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, who had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium in 2018 for shooting at police officers. The defendants, who have been friends since childhood and both have Moroccan roots, were sentenced to life imprisonment last year for their involvement in the 2015 Paris attacks.
Initiator died in Syria?
In July, most of the defendants were found guilty in the largest trial to date before a jury in Belgium. Now it was a question of the exact punishment. Unlike the decision on guilt and innocence in July, the twelve jurors did not decide alone, but together with the court.
Since Monday, the jury as well as the chairwoman of the court and her two associate judges have been housed in an unknown location for deliberations and isolated from the outside world. A total of ten men were charged with the attacks in Brussels. However, one person was missing from court in July: it is assumed that Oussama Atar, who is considered the initiator of the Paris and Brussels attacks, has now died in Syria. He was convicted in absentia.
In Brussels on March 22, 2016, three suicide bombers blew themselves up at the airport and in a subway station. 32 people were killed. Three others died later and were also recognized as victims. Almost 700 other people were injured. The jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the crime.
Sole survivor of the Paris attackers
Abrini was also supposed to detonate an explosive belt at Brussels airport. Prosecutor Bernard Michel explained in his plea that he was one of the “pillars” of the terrorist cell. Abrini testified in the trial that he shrank from committing the crime at the last moment when he saw women and children in the queue.
Abdeslam also wanted to kill innocent people, said prosecutor Paule Somers, addressing the defendant. After he had already “terrorized France”, he wanted to continue his religious war in Belgium.
The Islamist is considered the only survivor of the Paris attackers. In November 2015, they killed 130 people in front of the Stade de France football stadium, in the Bataclan music club and on terraces of restaurants and bars in the French capital. The court considered Abdeslam to be an important member of the Brussels terrorist cell. He had denied involvement because he was arrested in Belgium four days before the attack.