Ten men charged – Brussels terror: long prison sentences for Islamists

According to the information, the prison sentences ranged from ten years to life imprisonment. 38-year-old Belgian Mohamed Abrini was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Salah Abdeslam, the main perpetrator of the 2015 Paris attacks, who was also charged in Brussels, received no additional prison sentence because he had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison for another crime in Belgium.

35 people were killed in the attacks
The terrorist attacks on the Belgian capital’s airport and a metro station on March 22, 2016 left 35 dead and 340 injured.

Unlike the verdict on guilt and innocence in July, the twelve jurors did not decide alone, but together with the court. The jury as well as the presiding judge and her two deputy judges have been housed in an unknown location for deliberation and isolated from the outside world since Monday.

Ten men charged
A total of ten men were charged with the attacks in Brussels. However, in July one person went missing from court: he is now believed to have died in Syria.

Before the Brussels attacks, 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 likely orchestrated by the same terrorist cell. That is why six of those convicted in Paris also stood trial in Brussels – including the main defendant in the Paris trial, Salah Abdeslam.

Great public interest
Public interest in the trial with more than 900 co-plaintiffs was great. That’s why the trial was held in converted rooms at the former NATO headquarters in the northeast of the city.