2023-09-15 20:15:00
The Brussels Assize Court on Friday handed down sentences ranging from 10 years’ imprisonment to life imprisonment once morest several defendants in the trial of the attacks perpetrated on March 22, 2016 in the Belgian capital.
The jury and the court, meeting as a panel, reached, following five days of deliberation, a verdict condemning Oussama Atar to life imprisonment and being placed at the disposal of the sentence enforcement court (TAP) for 14 years .
The man, who is presumed dead, was found guilty of having coordinated, from Syria, these attacks committed at Brussels Zaventem airport and in a metro train at Maelbeek station, in the European district of the capital .
The life prison sentence, this time accompanied by a release to the TAP for 10 years, was also handed down once morest Osama Krayem and Bilal El Makhoukhi, found guilty of terrorist assassinations.
Osama Krayem, who had given up on blowing himself up in the Brussels metro, was found guilty of being co-perpetrator of these attacks. The Swede is considered one of the most active members of the terrorist cell in manufacturing the bombs.
Bilal El Makhoukhi, a former Islamic State fighter in Syria, where he was seriously injured, was also found guilty of being a co-perpetrator of the attacks.
For his part, Mohamed Abrini, convicted of terrorist assassinations, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and placed at the disposal of the TAP for 5 years for his participation in the attacks, which cost the lives of 36 people.
The Brussels Assize Court, however, decided not to strip Abrini of his Belgian nationality. The man had given up on blowing himself up on the day of the incident at Zaventem airport.
For his part, Ali El Haddad Asufi, found guilty of being co-perpetrator of the attacks, received a 20-year prison sentence and was placed at the disposal of the TAP for 10 years. He was one of the closest friends of suicide bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui and had, according to the jury, “given up on acquiring more precise knowledge” of what the terrorist group was plotting.
Furthermore, no sentence was handed down once morest the last accused recognized as co-perpetrator of the attacks, namely Salah Abdeslam. The college, made up of the popular jury and three professional magistrates, returned him to the sentence handed down for the shooting perpetrated on March 15, 2016 on rue du Dries, in the Brussels region, i.e. 20 years in prison.
On the other hand, he was deprived of his right to vote in Belgium (in municipal and European elections), as well as his civil and political rights.
Likewise, Sofien Ayari, who was not declared co-perpetrator of the attacks, was also sentenced to 20 years in prison already handed down once morest him for the shooting in Rue du Dries.
As for Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa, found guilty of participating in the activities of the terrorist group responsible for these attacks, he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, the maximum incurred for this charge, and a fine of 3,000 euros. On the other hand, he was not stripped of his Belgian nationality.
On March 22, 2016, three suicide bomb attacks were carried out in Belgium, two at Brussels Zaventem airport and one on a metro train at Maelbeek station, in the European district of the capital.
These attacks, claimed by the terrorist organization “Islamic State”, are the deadliest ever committed in Belgium: 32 dead and hundreds injured.
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