“I will not answer any questions if it happens like this,” warned the accused. “I take it upon myself to be there, but these are things that are not done. In France [au procès des attentats à Paris, NDLR], we were respected. Things have to change or I will remain silent until the end of the trial,” he warned.
The double cowardice of Mohamed Abrini
The transfer conditions are not within the jurisdiction of the Assize Court, replied its president Laurence Massart, adding that “the (federal) prosecutors have heard you”.
They then took the floor to clarify that the conditions denounced did not fall within their competence either. They were decided on the basis of administrative assessments, taking into account the safety of the detainees, their relatives (that is to say their lawyers) and the police themselves, explained the prosecutor Bernard Michel. He assured Mohamed Abrini that his grievances would be relayed.
In the process, Jonathan De Taye, lawyer for Ali El Haddad Asufi, agreed with Mohamed Abrini. He denounced the anal searches to which his client is subjected each day of transfer. This while he has nothing in his cell, is being held in a high security unit at Haren prison and does not see any other inmates, he insisted. “These people are going to accept this every day?!”, He challenged the president.
The lawyer therefore asks for decent conditions for this trial, like what happened in Paris. “If the conditions of detention are not dignified, the trial is not dignified,” said Me De Taye again.
In view of these conditions, the lawyer announced that he would send a letter of formal notice to the Ministers of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne and Interior Annelies Verlinden on Monday. If they do not react, Jonathan De Taye will introduce a summary and ask to suspend the debates in the meantime.
It finally appeared that a letter written in particular by Me Paci, Salah Abdeslam’s lawyer, was sent to the prosecution as well as to the Ministers of the Interior and of Justice to ask for an improvement in the conditions of detention of the accused.