Ten defendants will be tried in the trial of the Brussels attacks. To do this, regarding fifteen lawyers will have the task of defending them. Who are they ? What are their motivations and how do they plan to go regarding it?
Fifteen lawyers will be responsible for defending, next Monday, the ten accused of the attacks in Brussels. Why did they agree to defend them, and how to do it?
Why defend these defendants?
Michel Bouchat, renowned and experienced criminal lawyer, recently joined the defense of Salah Abdeslam. “For the lawyer that I am, it is a challenge. It’s part of the judicial history of our country. For a lawyer, in any case the lawyer that I am, it is important to have the opportunity to participate“, he justifies.
Stanislas Eskenazi is a tax lawyer. Apart from his knowledge of neighborhood life in Molenbeek, nothing predestined him to defend the man in the hat: “From the moment you have someone who is being prosecuted, and who is the most ‘hated’ man in Belgium at that time, it is an honor that a cornered person asks you and give him advice in times like these“, confides the lawyer of Mohamed Abrini.
There are no indefensible cases
For these lawyers, there is no indefensible case. There are only men to defend. “He’s a human being, he’s someone who’s had a chaotic school career. He is someone who is, vis-à-vis his lawyers and the people he meets, very respectful. It is someone who found himself in a gear. It’s my point of view“, s’explique Stanislas Eskenazi.
The opinion is shared by his colleague Michel Bouchat: “There are no indefensible cases, or else we don’t accept them. The file that we do not accept is because we consider that we are not capable of defending it properly“.
How to defend them?
Regarding Salah Abdeslam, there is a case to defend, believes his lawyer, Michel Bouchat. At the time of the attacks in Brussels, his client was in prison, yet he is accused of 32 terrorist murders. “This is why the case is very interesting to defend for a criminal lawyer and for a jurist. It will be all the notions of participation of culprits which will be discussed, which will be debated during the trial before the Assize Court.”
He was cowardly, he was not at the end of the project. There is nothing more human than cowardice
Mohamed Abrini, he gave up on dying twice, in Paris and in Zaventem: “He was cowardly, he was not at the end of the project. There is nothing more human than cowardice. It’s a totally human feeling, so it brings it back to the world of men“, nuance Stanislas Eskenazi.
At the Paris trial, the two defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment. This is accompanied by 22 years of security, for Mohamed Abrini and is incompressible for Salah Abdeslam.
Michel Bouchat affirms it: “I think Salah Abdeslam is a man who is recoverable, of course. This is why the incompressible nature of the life sentence imposed on him in Paris has something inhuman regarding it.“.
Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini are now detained in the brand new Haren prison.
