They had already been found guilty in July – now the sentences for several attackers in the Brussels terror trial have been determined: some of them have to be imprisoned up to 30. 32 people were killed in the 2016 attacks.
In Belgium, seven years after Islamist attacks, a court sentenced the main suspects to long prison sentences. The judges in the major trial considered it proven that six of the eight convicts had taken part in two bomb attacks at Brussels airport and a bomb attack in the Brussels subway on March 22, 2016. At that time 32 people died.
The verdicts were for murder and attempted murder, the Belga news agency reported. Prison sentences of between 20 years and life imprisonment were imposed. The men had already been found guilty in July of, among other things, terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder, and now it was a question of the exact sentence.
No additional prison sentence for Abdeslam
Salah Abdeslam, the main perpetrator of the 2015 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead, who was also charged in Brussels, did not receive an additional prison sentence because he had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison for another crime in Belgium. The public prosecutor’s office had portrayed him in the Brussels trial as a full member of the Brussels terrorist cell, even though he had been arrested in Belgium four days before the attack. He is already serving a life sentence for the attacks in Paris.
The Belgian Mohamed Abrini, who comes from Morocco, has to go to prison for 30 years as one of the main defendants. He was supposed to detonate an explosive belt at Brussels airport, but according to his own statements, he shied away from it at the last moment when he saw women and children in the queue – at least that’s what he testified in the trial. Abrini had also already been sentenced to life imprisonment for the Paris attacks in 2015.
terrorist attacks from March 22, 2016 in Brussels
In the terrorist attacks on March 22, 2016 at Zaventem airport and in a metro station in Brussels, 32 people died and 340 were injured. The jury decided to add three additional deaths to the victims. They died after the attacks – perhaps after a long illness or by suicide. The official death toll increased from 32 to 35.
It is assumed that one of the ten defendants has now died in Syria. Eight defendants were accused of 32 counts of terrorist murder, attempted terrorist murder of almost 700 people and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization. The public prosecutor’s office only charged the ninth point with the third point.
Great public interest
Before the attacks in Brussels, extremists killed 130 people and injured 350 others in a series of attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015. The attacks in Paris and Brussels were probably carried out by the same terrorist cell, which is why six of those convicted in Paris were also tried in Brussels. The terrorist group “Islamic State” claimed responsibility for both the Paris and Brussels attacks.
There was great public interest in the trial with more than 900 co-plaintiffs. The trial was therefore held in converted rooms at the former NATO headquarters in the northeast of the city.