The mammoth trial of the terrorist attacks in Brussels in 2016 has begun. Nine defendants are present at the first hearing. Defense attorneys see the presumption of innocence violated.
The trial of the terrorist attacks in Brussels in March 2016 has begun in a court in the Belgian capital. Nine of the ten defendants appeared in the court for the preliminary hearing on Monday. They took their places in security booths made of glass and metal behind the numerous defenders. Victims of the attacks and their lawyers were also in the room, and the jury box initially remained empty.
After a short time, however, six of the accused decided to return to their cells – including Salah Abdeslam, who had already been sentenced to life imprisonment as the main accused in the Paris terror trials.
During the preliminary hearing, the list of witnesses was discussed and further technical details of the trial were clarified. The twelve jurors are to be selected on October 10 before the indictment is read out at the start of the case hearing on October 13. The process is expected to take six to nine months.
The fact
On March 22, 2016, three suicide bombers from the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) killed 32 people at Brussels’ Zaventem Airport and in a metro station in the busy EU district, and injured hundreds, some seriously. Ten men have been charged, one of whom is missing. It is believed that he died in Syria.
Eight defendants are charged with 32 counts of terrorist murder, attempted terrorist murder of 695 people and involvement in the activities of a terrorist organization. The public prosecutor only charges the ninth with the third point. Because the acts in Brussels and the attacks on November 13, 2015 in Paris were engineered by the same terrorist cell, six of those convicted in Paris are also on trial in Brussels. In the French capital, extremists killed 130 people and injured 350 others in a series of attacks.
The process
The start on Monday in Brussels gave a foretaste of what could come in the coming weeks and months. There was a dispute over the treatment of the accused. Appearing in the boxes in court is not fair, Abdeslam said. Defense attorney Stanislas Eskenazi said the boxing violated the presumption of innocence. Another defense lawyer agreed, complaining that it was not possible to communicate with clients and that the boxes violated the European Declaration of Human Rights.
The public prosecutor, however, defended the measure. The booths have a slit in the front for the accused to communicate with their attorneys. At the Paris trial, the accused sat together in a glass case.
One of the accused pleaded innocent Monday before returning to his cell. “I would like to go home. I have nothing to do here,” said Smail Farisi, who had already been acquitted in the Paris terror trial. He is accused of having accommodated two of the Brussels suicide bombers in his apartment.
The defendants face more than 900 joint prosecutors. Public interest in the process is huge – which is why the process is being conducted in the converted premises of the former NATO headquarters in the north-east of the city. Over the past few years, victims and victim organizations have repeatedly complained about insufficient and complicated support from the state.
Source: Stern
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