2023-09-05 19:17:00
At the trial of the Brussels attacks, following the indictment on the sentences of the 8 defendants. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office is calling for life imprisonment for all, with the exception of 2 defendants, in particular against Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has terminated its submissions against the eight defendants found guilty in the trial of the attacks in Brussels on March 22, 2016. His requests before the Assize Court were marked with extreme severity, as had been already hinted at the prosecutors in the introduction to their brief on Monday.
They therefore requested, in most cases, life imprisonment as well as a release to the Sentence Enforcement Court (TAP) for the maximum period of 15 years, i.e. the sentences heavier ones provided for by Belgian legislation. When applicable, the representatives of the public prosecutor’s office also requested the deprivation of Belgian nationality.
Monday morning, the prosecutors had already asked that Oussama Atar, the leader of the terrorist cell at the origin of the attacks in Brussels (but also those of Paris, editor’s note), bail out of this perpetuity accompanied by an update TAP layout. They had added to this the forfeiture of Belgian nationality against this Belgian-Moroccan who failed in his trial since he was presumed dead in Syria.
The prosecution had, in the process, invited the jurors to refer Sofien Ayari to the sentence pronounced against him during his trial for the shooting rue du Dries in Forest on March 15, 2016, i.e. 20 years in prison. This means that the public prosecutor is asking that no sentence be imposed on the man before the assize court, where he was found guilty “only” of participating in the activities of a terrorist group, charge for which he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
The federal prosecution continued in this line of severity on Tuesday, reviewing the fate of the various other defendants.
“No extenuating circumstances” for Salah Abdeslam
Starting with Salah Abdeslam, found guilty at the end of July, as co-author, of 35 murders and hundreds of attempted murders in a terrorist context. “You cannot grant any extenuating circumstances“, struck the federal prosecutor Paule Somers to the attention of the jury and the court, describing a man who was so radicalized that he resumed his terrorist activity after the attacks of Paris and that he decided to “continue his war” and kill innocent and unknown victims.
If the facts of March 22 could take place, it is thanks to the essential help that the French accused brought to the group, repeated the prosecution, echoing his indictment on guilt. And the accused never dissociated himself from his terrorist intentions, before or after the attacks, Paule Somers noted again.
Salah Abdeslam therefore deserves the strongest sanction and the prosecution asked to “grant” him life imprisonment, a release from the TAP for the maximum period of 15 years and a withdrawal of the right to vote in Belgium (in the elections municipal and European).
“Heinous Facts”
Federal prosecutors then made the same request for Mohamed Abrini, “the man in the hat”, also convicted of murder and attempted murder in a terrorist context. “In the face of such odious facts“, the Belgian-Moroccan must also be stripped of his Belgian nationality, they demanded.
“It is important in terms of symbol. The link between the Belgian company and Mohamed Abrini has been severed and it is solely of his doing. He betrayed his country“, justified the prosecutor Bernard Michel. Just like for Salah Abdeslam, “you shouldn’t reduce his sentence on the pretext that he was sentenced in Paris“, he added.
Osama Krayem also faces life imprisonment and a 15-year TAP release. This Swede had given up on blowing himself up in the metro.
Prosecutor Paule Somers dismissed the idea of granting the slightest mitigating circumstance to the accused, who provided essential assistance, both in the attack at Zaventem airport and in the metro. If he did not want to die himself on March 22, renouncing to blow himself up, he, on the other hand, killed 35 people, injured hundreds of victims and “undermined forever the future of their loved ones,” she recalled.
Ali El Haddad Asufi s’effondre
The prosecution came to the same conclusions with regard to Ali El Haddad Asufi, whom it considers to be one of the logisticians of the terrorist cell and who, like the other defendants already mentioned, was found guilty of murder and attempted murder. assassination in a terrorist context. He too risks life imprisonment, a release from the TAP for 15 years and the forfeiture of Belgian nationality. Again, said prosecutor Bernard Michel, there can be no question of mitigating circumstances.
An indictment that fell like a blow on the Belgian-Moroccan. First with his head in his hands, the man ended up collapsing on the table in front of him. He then asked to leave the room, his head bowed, visibly very affected by the prosecution’s requests.
Last defendant to have been recognized as co-author of the attacks, Bilal El Makhoukhi, another logistician of the cell, faces the same requisitions. This Belgian-Moroccan therefore risks life imprisonment accompanied by a provision of the TAP for 15 years and the forfeiture of his Belgian nationality. “He denied the right to life of 35 people“, notably launched Bernard Michel, not seeing any extenuating circumstances which could benefit him.
Finally, the cell’s last known logistician, Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa, was not sentenced for assassinations and attempted assassinations in a terrorist context but only for participation in the activities of a terrorist group. He risks a sentence ranging from five to ten years in prison.
Faced with the profile of the man and his dangerousness for others, the prosecution asked that the maximum sentence of 10 years be imposed on this Belgian-Rwandan, who twice hosted Mohamed Abrini and Osama Krayem in his home. Prosecutor Paule Somers also demanded that he be stripped of his Belgian nationality and that his right to vote be withdrawn.
The almost seven and a half years of imprisonment he has already served in preventive detention will be charged to the sentence imposed on him by the Assize Court. Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa could therefore soon be released from prison.
Trial of the Brussels bombings
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