Salah Abdeslam is currently imprisoned in Belgium where he faces a life sentence for the attacks of 2016. The jihadist wishes to carry out his detention in this country and no longer return to prison in France, indicated this Thursday the Belgian court which will examine his request.
The 33-year-old French terrorist, sentenced in June 2022 in Paris to life imprisonment for the attacks of November 13, 2015 (130 dead), has carried out most of his detention in France since his arrest in Brussels on March 18, 2016. In July 2022, this highly guarded detainee was “lent” to Belgium for the time of the trial scheduled this time for the Brussels attacks perpetrated by the same cell (32 dead on March 22, 2016).
Suspension of hearing in sight
Even before the end of this river trial – which is due to resume Monday morning before the Assize Court of the Belgian capital – he expressed that he opposed his return to France, according to information confirmed by the court on Thursday. of French-speaking first instance (TPIF) of Brussels. A request to this effect must be examined “Monday at 2 p.m.” by this court sitting in the same enclosure as the Assize Court, at the former headquarters of NATO.
This is a summary (emergency) action against the Belgian State, which will have to express an opinion on the request. Consequence: the Assize Court, which has yet to rule on the sentences for the eight defendants found guilty of participation or complicity in the attacks of March 2016, should suspend its hearing Monday afternoon, the time of the pleadings in the summary action by Salah Abdeslam.
A childhood in Brussels
Ten men in total have been tried since December 2022 for the attacks in Brussels, claimed like those in Paris by the Islamic State organization. On July 25, six of them, including Salah Abdeslam, were found guilty of “murder and attempted murder in a terrorist context”, which makes them incur life imprisonment. Two other defendants, guilty of participating in the activities of a terrorist group, face a maximum sentence of ten years. Finally, there are two acquittals.
In addition to the sentence linked to his participation in the events of November 13, 2015, Salah Abdeslam is also currently serving a twenty-year prison sentence handed down in 2018 in Brussels for his participation in a shooting with the police in March 2016, three days before his arrest. Although he has French nationality, he spent his entire childhood in Brussels where his parents of Moroccan origin emigrated.