2023-09-15 19:45:00
The deliberations of the jury and the Assize Court which must set the sentences for the eight accused tried for the attacks of March 22, 2016 were long. It lasted four days. The eight accused, who risked life imprisonment for six of them (Oussama Atar, Mohamed Abrini, Osama Krayem, Salah Abdeslam, Ali El Haddad El Asufi and Bilal El Makhoukhi) and ten years for the last two, Sofien Ayari and Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa, were the last to enter their box even though the court was already set up.
In their indictment, held last week, federal prosecutors requested maximum sentences as well as forfeiture of nationality once morest Belgians with another nationality, namely Atar, Abrini, El Haddad Asufi, El Makhoukhi and Bayingana Muhirwa.
Ayari and Bayingana Muhirwa were in fact acquitted in mid-July of murder in a terrorist context. Only the prevention of participation in terrorist activities, punishable by a maximum of ten years, was held once morest them.
Contrasting final words at the trial of the March 22 attacks
The defenses of the accused already tried and convicted by the Paris Assize Court for the attacks of November 13, 2015 had argued that there was unity of intention with the attacks of March 22, 2016 and that they might not be impose a new sentence.
The court and jurors did not follow these defenses. However, they felt that these penalties should be taken into account and therefore be more lenient.
The court ruled that forfeitures of nationality should not be imposed. They retain their Belgian nationality.
The first accused, Osama Atar, the originator, from Syria, of the wave of attacks which hit Paris and then Brussels, was absent from the trial. He was reportedly killed in Syria in 2017, but there is no evidence. In Paris, he was sentenced to irreducible life imprisonment. The Brussels Assize Court also sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The second accused, Mohamed Abrini, the man in the hat, was to be the third man to blow himself up with his bag full of explosives in Zaventem. He had given up. His life sentence in Paris was recognized as a mitigating circumstance. Brussels sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
No mitigating circumstances were found for the third accused, the Swede Osama Krayem, who led the empty chair policy at the trial. He was sentenced to 30 years in Paris. The Brussels Assize Court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The fourth accused, Salah Abdeslam, had already been sentenced to life imprisonment for his participation in the Paris attacks and 20 years for the shooting on Rue du Dries. This gave him an extenuating circumstance. He did not receive a new sentence in Brussels: the 20 years on rue du Dries were enough.
Trial of the attacks in Brussels: Salah Abdeslam rejected his request to serve his sentence in Belgium
The fifth accused, Sofien Ayari, was arrested with Salah Abdeslam on March 18, 2016, four days before the attacks. He has already been sentenced to 30 years in Paris and 20 years for rue du Dries. Which is enough for the court.
The sixth, Ali El Haddad El Asufi, was close to Ibrahim El Bakraoui, who blew himself up in Zaventem. He was sentenced to ten years in Paris. Brussels sentenced him to 20 years and ten years of provision to the TAP.
The last two had not been sentenced in Paris. Bilal El Makhoukhi, considered very dangerous by the court, was sentenced to life imprisonment and 10 years’ probation. Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa was sentenced to ten years in prison.
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