Ten individuals will be charged in connection with the murder of thirty-two people in March 2016, when bombs exploded at Brussels Airport and then on a metro train moving through the European area of the city.
Six and a half years after terrorist attacks that resulted in death, injury, and shock, Belgium is commencing the largest criminal trial in its history.
Ten individuals will be charged in connection with the murder of thirty-two people in March 2016, when bombs exploded at Brussels Airport and then on a metro train moving through the European area of the city.
It was the worst attack on Belgium since the end of World War II, prompting vigils, protests, border checks, parliamentary inquiry, and even a partial evacuation of the country’s nuclear power plants.
Salah Abdeslam, who has already been convicted in France for his role in the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris that claimed 130 lives, will be the lead suspect in the trial. He was sentenced to life without parole in prison.
There will be nine defendants present in court. A tenth, Oussama Atar, is being tried in absentia despite the possibility that he was killed in Syria.
Abdeslam is one of five criminals convicted by French courts and now facing additional punishment at the hands of the Belgian police. All of them are suspected of participating in both sets of attacks on behalf of the Islamic State.
The jury will be informed that a Brussels-based “terrorist cell” intended to carry out a more ambitious series of coordinated attacks at the 2016 European Football Championship in France.
It will be argued, however, that they altered their plans after the arrest of Abdeslam on March 18 following a police raid in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek.
It will be alleged that four days later, members of the cell struck Brussels instead, and the murders began at the airport.
CCTV footage allegedly reveals three individuals wheeling three carts through the departure area just before the blasts. Each man was carrying a bomb, but only two were detonated by suicide attackers, according to the prosecution.
They will assert that Mohamed Abrini, widely known as “the man in the hat” in a CCTV image published by police after the assaults, was the third suspect. The jury will be informed that he has known Abdeslam since infancy and that he, too, was previously convicted by a French court.
Amid scenes of turmoil and dread, the airport was evacuated. However, just an hour and a quarter after the explosions at the airport, another bomb exploded in the middle carriage of a train at the Maelbeek metro station, not far from the European Commission offices.
In addition to the 32 victims of the bombings, three terrorists also perished. More than 300 individuals were injured, including 62 in critical condition. A young Belgian woman who was in the airport at the time of the incident chose to be euthanized earlier this year due to the “intolerable psychological” strain it had imposed on her.
Former Belgian prime minister and current president of the European Council Charles Michel called the attack “blind, aggressive, and cowardly.”
The proceeding will take place in the former NATO headquarters in Brussels. The construction of facilities suited for conducting such a high-profile trial has cost millions of pounds, but its start has been postponed due to reservations over the secure “glass box” that would house the defendants.
The victims and their families have long complained that it has taken too long for justice to be served and that the perpetrators have received more attention than the victims.
According to Belgian officials, the process of bringing the defendants to court has been legally and logistically complex, and delivering justice in such cases can take years.
Approximately 1,000 individuals were summoned as potential jurors or understudies. This is now complete, and the trial will commence. It is anticipated to last long into 2023 and cost approximately £30 million. After so many years of waiting, Belgium believes that it will ultimately bring a feeling of closure and justice.
