The cops who frame the accused of March 22 testify: “There are two trials, the trial of assizes and the trial of the police”

These men in the shadows have come into the light in spite of themselves, because of the controversy over the strip searches of those accused of the Brussels attacks. Three elite policemen drop their balaclavas to defend their work.

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Journalist at the service of society

By Louis Colart

Published on 02/10/2023 at 21:41
Reading time: 5 mins

Cach hearing at the Justitia now begins with this ritual: the president of the Assize Court responsible for judging the perpetrators of the Brussels attacks asks the seven detained defendants if they have undergone a strip search with genuflection. First, Mohamed Abrini and Osama Krayem refuse to speak, then from Salah Abdeslam to the seventh man, everyone answers “yes”. Finally, Abrini, Krayem and Abdeslam ask to “come down” to the cell, the room where they are detained during the day of the hearing.

This controversy over “strip searches” has poisoned the trial for weeks and poses a risk of appeal to the Supreme Court following it.

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