2023-04-27 11:49:57
Trial of the attacksAt the time of the attacks in Paris and Brussels, Kalashnikovs could be easily bought in Brussels at a price of 1,000-1,500 euros, said Thursday morning Léonardo P., aged 58, who was summoned before the court of assizes responsible for judging the attacks in Brussels on March 22, 2016.
The man, who is currently serving a prison sentence for feats of arms, testified detained, surrounded by two police officers. He said he rubbed shoulders with Ibrahim El Bakraoui – the author of the first explosion at Zaventem airport – in Ittre prison, between 2009 and 2014. “He was very happy, he talked about football all the time, c was a Barcelona fan,” he recalled. “He never spoke to me about anything (related to a planned attack, editor’s note), he said, adding that he did not find him radicalized.
Once released, Leonardo P. worked in a café located on the same street as the El Bakraoui brothers’ parental home. “Ibrahim came to find me there because he was looking for Kalashnikovs. He had heard, in prison, that I had kept army weapons at home for a friend”. Very evasive on the dates, he initially mentioned the period “2016-2017”. The president then pointed out to him that the attacks in Brussels had taken place on March 22, 2016. He therefore argued that the request dated back to “before the attacks in Paris” (in November 2015, editor’s note) because “afterwards, c was too late”.
“He did not tell me why” he wanted to obtain weapons, underlined the 50-year-old, claiming to have “never supplied weapons to the El Bakraoui brothers”, nor “given addresses” of places where they could get some. President Laurence Massart then wanted to know if it was easy to obtain weapons at that time in Brussels. “Yes, it was easy, it was enough to make contact with people from the East, Yugoslavs or Albanians, in cafes”.
A “capital” testimony
To do this, it was necessary to pay “between 1,000 and 1,500 euros”, he answered the question of a substitute juror. “Second-hand,” he clarified, to which the president of the court replied that it was clear that they did not come directly from the factory.
The president again asked him if he knew Ali El Haddad Asufi, one of the defendants who allegedly helped Brahim El Bakraoui in the search for weapons, via Dutch arms traffickers. “No, I’ve never seen it,” he said.
Ali El Haddad Asufi’s lawyer, Me Jean-Christophe De Block, described this testimony as “capital”. “The witness, known to organized crime, openly told us that he knew Ibrahim El Bakraoui well, that he came to ask him for Kalashnikovs. He also affirmed that Kalashnikovs are found everywhere in Brussels, at the Albanians, in the cafes… But according to the prosecution, Mr. El Haddad still took the risk of doing Brussels-Rotterdam and loading his car with weapons of war to bring them back to Brussels”.
Khalid El Bakraoui described as a “good guy”
The Assize Court also heard the testimony of a man who bought 14 Kalashnikov magazines on behalf of the El Bakraoui brothers in 2014 and 2015. The witness described Khalid El Bakraoui as “a childhood friend” while taking its distance from the terrorist acts committed in March 2016.
The president of the court recalled that the witness had been sentenced to 40 months in prison suspended for the purchase of these chargers. “It was not me personally who bought them, I sent someone,” he insisted in the preamble.
He then clarified that he had provided these chargers to Khalid El Bakraoui, described as a “childhood friend” and “a good guy” with whom he “had a good laugh”.
Asked about the personality of the suicide bomber of the metro, he however turned on. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. They chose their path, they died, too bad for them. I don’t know what I’m doing here, I’m not interested in testifying.
“He had no personality then, he was someone neutral”, then questioned Laurence Massart. “Yes,” replied the witness laconically.
Faced with his silence, the president asked him if he wanted to continue to testify or if he preferred that she proceed to the reading of his various hearings, while specifying that this second method is much longer and tedious. The witness finally preferred to remain silent.
The reading of his hearings returned to the trip made with another man, a “friend” with whom he had regular contact, to Wavre in order to buy Kalashnikov magazines there in an armory. Ten chargers would have been purchased once, then four on another occasion. The purchases were made in November 2014 and summer 2015.
The witness had specified during his hearings that he did not remember what had become of these chargers.
His hearing also revealed that he felt a form of “fear and hatred” towards the defendants and the deceased perpetrators of the attacks. “Are you still in this fear and this hatred?”, then questioned the president of the court. “Yes, compared to what they did.” He then explained that he believed he had spent a year in prison “for nothing”.
The witness refused to answer any questions from the jurors, the civil parties, the defense or the prosecution.
“He’s an angry man, he’s closed”
Maître Carette, Ibrahim Farisi’s lawyer, however wanted to question him about his conditions of detention in Forest, without success. “He is not well because of the isolation he suffered in prison,” exclaimed Ibrahim Farisi, who appears free at trial.
Isa Gultaslar, Sofien Ayari’s lawyer, also took the floor to recall that the witness had been charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group but that he was ultimately convicted of criminal association. “It’s not the Dreyfus affair, he still went to buy chargers, but he still spent ten months in solitary confinement, with this pressure to be prosecuted for terrorism”, estimated the lawyer .
Federal prosecutor Bernard Michel wanted to comment on the nature of the chargers purchased. “They were looking for magazines with the largest capacity available. In total, they could fire 420 shots with these 14 magazines”, he insisted, drawing a parallel with the violence of the attacks committed at the Bataclan on November 13, 2015 in Paris.
The witness then said several times that he wanted to leave. “He is an angry man, he is closed”, concluded the president of the assize court.
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