“From the start, I did things according to the rules, but in these conditions it is no longer possible. I will return to the mousetrap [cellulaire] and I will stay there until the verdict”, said Salah Abdeslam, Thursday morning, questioned by the president of the court regarding the strip searches. Salah Abdeslam and nine other men are accused in the case of the attacks of March 22, 2016, judged by the Assize Court of Brussels.
The president of the court asked, like every morning, the seven detained defendants if they had been subjected to strip searches with genuflexion by the police during their transfer from Haren prison to Justitia. They all answered in the affirmative except Mohamed Abrini and Osama Krayem who refused to answer. These last two as well as Salah Abdeslam and Sofien Ayari then asked to return to the cell phone and therefore did not attend the hearing. On Wednesday, Salah Abdeslam claimed to have been punched in the face by a police officer during the strip search. A medical examiner was required by the court to ascertain his injuries. Since the start of the trial, the detained defendants have denounced their conditions of transfer from Haren prison, where they are held under high security, to the Justitia, located not far away, where the trial is being held. A summary procedure was initiated by their lawyers and, at the end of December, the judge considered that systematic strip searches constituted degrading treatment.
The Belgian State, forced to put an end to the practice, appealed, but the decision of the judge in chambers is effective. However, according to the defense of the defendants, it is not respected by the service of the DAP (Direction Protection), within the federal police, which is in charge of the transfers of the detainees.
