The trial began with criticism of security measures imposed on those detained in the attacks that left 32 dead and hundreds injured.
The bitter memory of the atrocities unleashed by jihadists in the 2016 attacks is becoming clearer today in Brussels, where the oral phase of the trial begins on the attacks that have marked the hearts of Belgians, leaving some 30 dead and hundreds injured have left behind. . The trial, which will try nine men, has begun with Mohamed Abrini, one of the main defendants, criticizing the security conditions imposed on the detainees.
“I took revenge for seven years!” denounced Abrini, identified as the jihadist who gave up setting himself on fire. According to him, the conditions for transfer to the Palace of Justice were “deplorable”, characterized by house searches without clothes, blindfolded and “satanic music at full volume”. “Things have to change or I will remain silent until the end of the trial,” warned the defendant, who spoke widely at the trial for the 2015 attacks in France.
His criticism was joined by Jonathan De Taye, a lawyer for Ali el-Haddad Asufi. “Every morning they examine the folds of my client’s anus. Is this worthy? What comes out of my client’s anus? A revolver?», the lawyer boomed after announcing a demand from the Ministry of Justice to obtain relaxation of the measures.
The trial also includes Salah Abdeslam, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in France in June for his role in the November 2015 Paris and Saint-Denis attacks that left 130 dead. The defendants – six of whom have already been convicted in France – will be heard from January 19, while the first testimonies of the victims will take place from mid-January. The prisoners could be charged with life imprisonment for “terrorist murders and attempted murders”.
The jihadist cell that attacked France retreated to Brussels and four months later, in March 2016, carried out the attacks – claimed by Islamic State (IS) – for which Abdeslam and eight other terrorists will now face trial. There will also be a tenth defendant, Usama Atar, who will be tried in absentia because authorities believe he died in Syria.
Several dozen relatives and friends of the 32 deceased, as well as civilians injured by the explosions or traumatized by “the war scenes” that day, were present at the judicial process this Monday, according to the Attorney General’s Office, which estimated at thousands of people claiming compensation. Today, these citizens must remember the brutality suffered by IS on March 22, 2016, when two jihadists blew themselves up in the departure hall of the Brussels airport in Zaventem, while at the same time a third did the same in the Maalbeek metro station.
Sandrine Couturier, one of the applicants, was on the subway that day. “I want to confront myself with what humans are capable of. I have to accept that they are not all good,” he told AFP. She hasn’t been the same since the attack. He suffers from memory loss and concentration problems. Sébastien Bellin, a former professional basketball player, lost a leg for his part. Now he confirms that he does not feel any form of resentment or hatred against the perpetrators of the crimes. “It would take away the energy I need to rebuild myself,” he says. This trial, scheduled to run until June 2023, is the largest organized before a criminal court in Belgium.
Source: La Verdad
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