“I don’t even know what to say anymore. This is all a masquerade, hysteria, paranoia, hypervigilance…”, declared Mohamed Abrini, Friday morning, before the civil court of Brussels in summary. He said once more that he would not speak at the trial of the March 22, 2016 attacks, in which he is accused, if his conditions of transfer from prison to the courthouse do not change.
Like five of his co-accused, Abrini brought an action before the judge in summary proceedings once morest the Belgian State, denouncing inhuman and degrading transfer conditions. The defendants evoke intimate strip searches, the constraint to wear a mask on the eyes and the imposition of very high volume music in the van. “I compare the Paris trial (relating to the attacks of November 13, 2015, editor’s note) with what is done here. In Paris, everything was done to ensure that the accused were placed in the best possible conditions. I had no mask on the eyes, no bulletproof vest, no music. I listened to music, but that, what is imposed on us, is not music”explained Abrini, implying that the sound that is imposed to disorient the defendants during their transfer is aggressive.
Some talked regarding music “heavy metal”others from “hard rock”. “I want to be here but calmly, calmly. We have nothing more to lose. We are already heavily condemned”said the defendant. “To come here (to Justitia in Haren, editor’s note) it’s an obstacle course. To have a pen, a fucking pen, it’s complicated”he got carried away, speaking of “Hitler’s methods” from the police. “Under these conditions, I will not come”he repeated.
The accused Sofien Ayari also spoke. He described his transfer conditions, referring in particular to the fact that he and his co-defendants do not have seat belts in the van, unlike the police. As they are handcuffed, so they cannot “to catch up” during sudden braking of the vehicle and fall. Ali El Haddad Asufi, he criticized the fact that these security measures, which he considers disproportionate, apply “to the whole group” without distinction. But, he said, “I need this trial to prove my innocence. That’s what is at stake, that we can have a peaceful trial. It seems that everything is done to break the defendants psychologically”.
Bilal El Makhoukhi also gave details of the rules imposed on him. “You have to take the panties off, turn them over and genuflect three times to see if there’s anything in your anus”, he said. Finally, Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa explained that before being transferred under high security to Haren prison, for the duration of the trial, he was incarcerated in Namur prison, in “open section”, for three years. He stated that, as part of the work he does in detention, he has to handle scissors or box cutters and that suddenly he finds himself today in a cell empty of everything, and subjected to extreme security measures. “I still don’t understand”he launched.
