Terrorist behind the French Bataclan attacks has appeared in a court
The terrorist behind the French Bataclan attacks has appeared in a Belgian dock sporting a new beard as the huge trial into the Brussels 2016 bombings opened today.
The previously clean-shaven Salah Abdeslam, 33, has already been sentenced to life in prison by French authorities over the horrific 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people.
But the convicted jihadist also faces charges in Belgium related to the bombings targeting Brussels’ metro and airport that saw 32 killed the following year in the country’s worst peacetime massacre.
He is one of ten alleged terrorists accused of directing or aiding the 2016 attacks in Belgium’s biggest ever criminal trial.
At around 8am on March 22, a series of bombs were set off at opposite ends of the check-in area at Zaventem airport, and an hour later another blast rocked Maalbeek metro station.
Both the Paris and Brussels suicide bombings were claimed by the Islamic State group, and investigators believe they were carried out by the same Belgium-based cell, including Abdeslam.
The group was planning more violence, allegedly including attacks on the Euro 2016 football cup in France.
But they were forced to act quickly after Abdeslam was arrested on March 18, and carried out the Brussels attack four days later, near the EU headquarters.
Alongside those killed, hundreds of travellers and transport staff were maimed and six years on many victims, relatives and rescuers remain traumatised.
Appearing in court today, the prime suspect confirmed his identity as proceedings began: ‘Abdeslam Salah, 33, electrical mechanic.’
Only one of the nine defendants present, 30-year-old Osama Krayem, refused to stand as they were presented to the high security court, a purpose built space in the disused former headquarters of the NATO alliance.
A 10th suspect, 33-year-old Oussama Atar, is believed to have been killed in Syria.
One of the defendants is Mohamed Abrini, who prosecutors say went to Brussels Airport in March 2016 with two suicide bombers, but fled without detonating his suitcase of explosives.
Osama Krayem, a Swedish national, is accused of planning to be a second bomber on Brussels’ metro.
Wednesday’s hearing kicked off jury selection from a huge pool of more than 1,000 citizens.
The court was to choose 12 jurors and 24 potential replacements who will need to attend near daily sessions of a months-long process leading into next year.
On December 5, the main evidential hearings will begin.
Five of the nine defendants to appear in the dock in Belgium have already been convicted in the French trial, including Abdeslam.
He is serving life without parole in France and faces a further sentence in Belgium.
Hundreds of witnesses and victims will testify in the months to come, some still hopeful that telling the story of Belgium’s worst peacetime massacre will offer them a measure of closure.
‘I don’t really expect a lot of answers,’ said Sandrine Couturier, who was on the Maelbeek metro platform and plans to come to face the defendants.
‘But I want to confront myself with what human beings are capable of doing. I have to accept that not everyone is good,’ the PTSD survivor told AFP ahead of the opening.
Like many of those who have spoken to reporters, she suffers from memory loss and concentration problems. Many seek treatment for depression.
Sebastien Bellin, a former professional basketball player who was due to fly to New York on the morning of March 22, lost the use of a leg in the attack.
He says that now he feels no hatred.
‘It would suck the energy I need to rebuild myself,’ he says.
The trial, which is estimated to cost around £21million, should have begun in October, but there was controversy over the dock, in which the accused were to have been held in individual glass-walled boxes.
The defendants’ areas were rebuilt as a single, shared space because their lawyers argued the glass boxes were like animal cages.
Source: Daily mail
