Trial in Brussels: the hearings for the 2016 jihadist attacks begin

The Criminal Court of Brussels The hearings in the trial for the jihadist attacks that caused 32 deaths in March 2016 in the Belgian capital began on Monday, a moment awaited and feared by the still traumatized victims.

After the constitution of the popular jury on Wednesday, the hearing resumed this Monday just before 10:00 to finally get to the heart of the matter. Discussion is awaited It will last until June.

front nine defendants, among them the Frenchman Salah Abdeslam – only living member of the commandos who hit Paris on 13 November 2015 and were arrested in Brussels four days before the attacks of March 2016-, more than a thousand people They are seeking damages, according to the federal attorney’s office.

The facts

On the morning of March 22, 2016, two jihadists blew themselves up. in the departure hall from Brussels-Zaventem airport, and a third, an hour later, was transported in a subway station in the capital.

​ About 32 people died and several hundred were injured.

These suicide bombings, claimed by ISIS, were carried out by the jihadist cell that was responsible for the attacks of November 13, 2015 (130 dead in Paris and Saint-Denis).

a long process

It is expected to be a very long process, between six and nine months, in which victims, survivors and relatives of the largest attack that Belgium has suffered since the Second World War will pass.

Among other things, it is necessary to clarify what happened that day and if the terrorists acted in haste and the objective was another.

The local press was quick to call the process as process of the century. Given the large number of people who have to testify, the trial takes place in the former NATO headquarterswith 250 policemen mobilized every day and with a total cost of almost 500,000 euros.

a riddle

The degree of participation of the defendants in the trial it is one of the puzzles of the trial, as well as the number of civil parties who will agree to testify publicly.

One of the defendants Osama Krayemhe refused to get up on Monday and answer brief questions at the start of the hearing, as he already did during Wednesday’s hearing when the jury was selected.

The defendants are expected to be questioned from December 19 and the first testimonies of the victims will be from mid-January.

It could also receive Salah Abdeslam, sentenced in June in France to life imprisonment in the November 13 trial a very severe penalty in Belgium.

AFP and FRY

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