We are like dogs
Laurence Massart adds that it is better to have the police next to the accused rather than in the corridor behind the boxes. Given the building and its general security, the president recommends a secure device, without having to compartmentalize in individual boxes. She cites as an example the unique box with a glass band from the trial of the Paris attacks.
For its part, the FPS justice, via press release, explained that il was”currently premature to estimate the impact that these adjustments will have in terms of budget and timetable. Everything is set work to find a new tailor-made solution that disrupts the planned course of the procedure as little as possible“.
Reactions from the defense and the civil parties
“It’s an extraordinary judgment that will mark legal history, because it puts things back in place“, reacted Me Michel Bouchat, counsel for Salah Abdeslam, on Friday, following the judgment which orders the dismantling of the boxes of the accused, in the trial of the attacks in Brussels.
Regarding the presence of his client at the next hearings, the lawyer replied: “we’ll see, today’s ruling opens the door to a peaceful trial and that’s fundamental. He also shows total confidence in the police who provide security. I imagine that the work will now be carried out by the Executive. If the situation were to continue, there would then be a violation of the principle of the right to a fair trial.“.
“Too bad it had to come to this.“said Me Virginie Taelman, lawyer for Bilal El Makhoukhi. “The authorities have been alerted for two years about these individual glazed boxes and yet have rushed headlong to build them“, added Me Taelman.
“It is very important that the defendants are in an optimal situation to be able to express themselves“, reacted Me Maryse Alié, lawyer for the ASBL Life4Brussels, one of the civil parties to the trial of the attacks of March 22, 2016. The president of the assize court ordered the dismantling, in their current configuration, of the boxes on Friday. windows in which the accused are seated.
It is a situation not of appeasement but of balance, she estimated, recalling also that it has been more than six years that the victims have been waiting for answers to their questions from the accused. Me Alié also remembers that we do not cut corners on the place of the victims in the courtroom.