terrorism
End of trial: Multiple life sentences for terrorism in Brussels
Judge Laurence Massart sits in the courtroom before reading out the verdicts. photo
© John Thys/Pool AFP/AP/dpa
The attacks in Brussels in 2016 left deep wounds. Now it’s clear: The “man in the hat” has to be in prison for 30 years. The most well-known defendant will not receive a new sentence, despite being found guilty.
More than seven years after the Islamist-motivated attacks in The last judgments have been made in Brussels for the time being. Three people involved were sentenced to life in prison on Friday evening, and three others were sentenced to between 10 and 30 years. Despite being found guilty, two of the defendants did not receive a new sentence, as the Belgian news agency Belga reported – including Salah Abdeslam, the main person responsible for the even more devastating November attacks in Paris in 2015. This marked the end of a historic mammoth trial for small Belgium.
In the attacks on March 22, 2016, three suicide bombers from the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) detonated bombs at Brussels’ Zaventem airport and at a subway station in the heart of the Belgian capital. They killed 32 people and injured 340. According to the jury’s decision, the defendants were also held responsible for the deaths of three people who died of illness or suicide after the attacks. The official death toll is now 35.
Before the attacks in Brussels, Islamist extremists killed 130 people and injured 350 others in a series of terror attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015. The attacks in both metropolises were probably orchestrated by the same terrorist cell, which is why six of those convicted in Paris were also tried in Brussels – including Abdeslam. According to Belga, the reason why he did not receive a new sentence was that he had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison for another crime in Belgium. In France he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the terror in Paris.
Trial and prison sentence
The men’s guilt and innocence were decided in July: after 18 days of deliberations, the jury found six of them guilty of, among other things, terrorist murder. Eight of the ten defendants were convicted of participating in the activities of a terrorist organization.
Now the only question was how long the terrorists would have to stay in prison. Public interest in the trial with more than 900 co-plaintiffs was huge. The trial was therefore held in converted premises at the former NATO headquarters in the north-east of Brussels. The jury and professional judges have been deliberating since Monday in an unknown location isolated from the outside world.
On Friday, according to Belga, around 20 survivors gathered in front of the courthouse before taking their seats in the hall. They wore T-shirts with slogans like “Ignored Children” and “Never Compensated Victims.” The organization Life4Brussels said that the victims’ anger was no longer directed only against the attackers, “but also against the Belgian state, which contributed to increasing their suffering.”
Victims’ organizations had repeatedly complained about a lack of support from the cumbersome state apparatus and criticized the chronically overburdened Belgian justice system. The bereaved were also stunned by media reports that several of the defendants had been monitored by the Belgian security authorities before the attacks in Paris and Brussels – and were still able to commit their bloody deeds later.
So now the final point: Abdeslam was convicted of participation in the activities of a terrorist organization, terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder – even though he was in prison on the day of the attack. In addition to the life sentence for the series of terror attacks in Paris, he was also sentenced to 20 years in prison in a separate case in Belgium because he shot at police officers shortly before his arrest in Brussels in 2016.
According to Belga, Mohamed Abrini was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was supposed to detonate another bomb at Zaventem airport, but escaped and became known as the “Man in the Hat” through images from surveillance cameras. He too was sentenced to life imprisonment in Paris.
A total of ten men were charged with the attacks in Brussels. However, one person was missing from court: it is assumed that he has now died in Syria. Two accused brothers were acquitted of all charges in July. The remaining defendants received sentences ranging from ten years to life imprisonment.