2023-09-16 15:18:02
BRUSSELS (AP) — A Belgian court on Friday sentenced five men to sentences ranging from 20 years in prison to life in prison on terrorist murder charges in connection with the 2016 suicide attacks that killed 32 people and injured hundreds. more at Brussels airport and at a busy metro station, in what remains the deadliest peacetime attack in the country.
One of the main suspects, Salah Abdeslam, had previously been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in a shooting days before the March 22, 2016, attacks and received no further prison terms. It happened following police discovered him and another suspect by accident while searching what they believed to be an empty apartment. Four officers were injured.
Abdeslam was serving a life sentence without parole in France for his participation in the attacks that devastated Paris cafes, the Bataclan theater and the French national stadium in 2015. Both the Paris and Brussels attacks were linked to the same group network Islamic State.
Taking the stand in a high-security Brussels court on Monday before the jury and magistrates retired to deliberate on sentences, Abdeslam begged them for mercy, insisting that he had no role in the Belgian suicide bombings — two at Brussels airport. the city and one on a subway train during the morning rush hour—and that he was unaware of the plot.
“I have been demonized. They have sentenced someone who does not deserve it,” said the 34-year-old Frenchman, according to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir. “I ask that you be fair with this latest decision.”
In total, 10 defendants were involved in what was the largest trial in Belgian judicial history. Two brothers were acquitted of all charges. The other eight people were convicted of participating in the activities of a terrorist group, and six of those eight were also convicted of terrorist murder.
Abdeslam was the only survivor among the Islamic State extremists who attacked Paris in November 2015. After months on the run, he was captured in Brussels on March 18, 2016. His arrest may have prompted other members of the Islamic State cell to speed up the plans for the attack on the Belgian capital.
Also convicted of terrorist murder at the trial was Mohamed Abrini, a childhood friend of Abdeslam and a Brussels native who walked away from Zaventem airport — Belgium’s main air hub — following his explosives failed to detonate. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Two others accused of playing a role in the suicide bombing plot — Osama Krayem and Bilal El Makhoukhi — were sentenced to life in prison, while a third, Ali El Haddad Asufi, received a 20-year prison sentence.
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