2023-09-16 06:11:00
Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa will be able to leave prison in a few weeks, his lawyer, Me Vincent Lurquin, said on Friday following the sentencing trial for the Brussels attacks of March 22, 2016. The Belgian-Rwandan was sentenced to 10 years in prison but has already spent almost seven and a half years behind bars.
The accused was only found guilty of participation in the activities of a terrorist group for having notably twice hosted Mohamed Abrini and Osama Krayem, the two terrorists who renounced blowing themselves up on March 22, 2016. He was sentenced to the maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment as well as a fine.
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“The verdict is quite severe in terms but Hervé always admitted to having housed Krayem and Abrini before the attacks, but also after, knowingly. This was worth a sanction and this sanction is still 7.5 years in prison , as well as this internal prison, this moral responsibility that he has,” commented Me Lurquin.
The defense had argued for a maximum sentence of 7.5 years in prison so that Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa could be released directly once the trial was over.
However, the Laekenois having already served three quarters of his sentence in preventive detention, Mr. Lurquin has already announced that he will request his conditional release. He estimated this release in a few weeks to be “almost automatic”.
“After seven and a half years in prison, you have to find a job, so it’s not going to be easy,” admitted the criminal lawyer, who noted that his client nevertheless had a plan for reintegration into society.
The public prosecutor had also requested that he be stripped of his Belgian nationality but the court did not follow the prosecution on this point.
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