Six years after the worst attacks that Belgium has known, the trial of the nine accused, including Salah Abdeslam, opens this Wednesday, November 30.
SourceAFP
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Lhe trial promises to be extraordinary. It will be the largest ever organized before a Belgian assize court. Nine defendants, including Salah Abdeslam, are called to the bar. They will face a thousand civil parties. Six and a half years after the deadly attacks that hit Belgium, the trial of the Brussels attacks opens before the Assize Court of the capital, with the aim of identifying the responsibilities of each of the jihadists.
The hearing opened shortly after 9:45 a.m. This first day is devoted to the appeal of the citizens who will form the jury. The debates, which should last until June, will start next Monday, December 5.
Unlike France, where they are subject to a special assize court (composed solely of magistrates), “terrorist” crimes are still judged in Belgium by 12 citizens drawn by lot to assist 3 professional magistrates.
Ten men will be tried
On the morning of March 22, 2016, two jihadists blew themselves up at Brussels-Zaventem airport and a third, a good hour later, in the metro of the European capital, causing a total of 32 dead and several hundred injured. . The attacks, claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), come four days after the arrest in Molenbeek of Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the commandos of November 13, 2015. And the investigators quickly note that they were perpetrated by this same cell already at the origin of the bloodbath in the French capital (130 dead in Paris and Saint-Denis on November 13). At the time, these jihadists had other plans in mind, including hitting Euro 2016 in France. But they act in haste after the arrest of Abdeslam.
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At this trial, nine men are expected in the box, including the 33-year-old Frenchman and his childhood friend from Molenbeek, Mohamed Abrini. A tenth, Osama Atar, leader of the cell, will be tried in his absence, because he is presumed dead in Syria. In total, six of these ten defendants have already been sentenced, most of them very heavily, in the river trial completed in June in Paris for November 13. Among them is Osama Krayem, who accompanied the assailant to the Brussels metro before turning back and getting rid of his explosives. At the Paris trial, this Swedish jihadist described as a “seasoned fighter” remained silent on his precise role in the cell.
12 full jurors, 24 alternates
“I don’t really expect a lot of answers,” Sandrine Couturier, a civil party who intends to come and face the defendants, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “But I want to confront myself with what human beings are capable of doing, I have to accept that not everyone is good”. Present on the Maelbeek metro platform at the time of the explosion in a train, this association director still suffers from post-traumatic stress. “Memory loss” and “concentration problems” which reappear as the trial approaches, she explains.
Episodes of anxiety, even depression, are still very frequent for survivors and witnesses that AFP was able to interview. Several also described their painful struggle to obtain insurance coverage for medical care. The victims were “abandoned to their fate by the Belgian State”, denounced a group representing nearly 300 civil parties. This collective, Life4Brussels, had already expressed its anger, at the end of September, at the announcement of the postponement of the trial due to a dock of the accused not complying with European law.
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The equipment initially planned, a box compartmentalized in individual glazed cells, had caused an outcry on the side of the defense. It had to be dismantled and replaced, which caused a delay of almost two months. In addition to the new box, collective and “semi-open”, offering better communication on either side of the glass wall, eyes will turn to the seats of the jurors on Wednesday.
An unprecedented situation in Belgium, the Assize Court will appoint thirty-six. In addition to the 12 incumbents, 24 substitute jurors will sit throughout the proceedings to compensate for any absences. Under penalty of invalidating the trial, it is absolutely necessary to respect this number of 12 citizens to assist the three professional magistrates when deliberating on the verdict.