Ten years after the Brussels attacks , Christelle Giovannetti, a survivor of the Maelbeek station, met Mohamed Abrini in prison. This restorative justice approach aims to understand the terrorist’s journey, beyond the judicial verdict.
Salah Abdeslam, Mohamed Abrini, Ali El Haddad Asufi, Bilal El Makhouki, and many other individuals convicted of the Brussels attacks in March 2016, expressed regrets on Monday during their trial at the Brussels court.
Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini, convicted for the Maelbeek and Zaventem attacks in 2016, were wiretapped in the Bruges prison. These recordings reveal the personality traits of the two men of Moroccan origin.
The Court of Cassation of Brussels has confirmed the ruling of the Brussels court considering "illegal" the practices of body searches and on the knees as well as other degrading treatments suffered by Salah Abdeslam , Mohamed Abrini and other accused of the 2016 Brussels attacks.
The victims of the Brussels attacks have requested to be heard in the presence of Mohamed Abrini and the other accused. They will give their testimony before the Brussels Assize Court in charge of trying the case.
A few days before the start of the trial of the Brussels attacks, the Belgian authorities have transferred Mohamed Abrini to the prison of Leuze-en-Hainaut. It would be a security issue.
While the victims of the Brussels attacks were eagerly awaiting the opening of the trial, the accused including Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini, supported by their lawyers, have decided not to appear, citing reasons deemed "grotesque" by the victims.
Mohamed Abrini, one of the nine defendants in the Brussels attacks that killed 32 people in March 2016, including 16 at Zaventem airport, tells his version of the events.
Sentenced to life imprisonment in France for his role in the November 13, 2015 attacks in Paris, Salah Abdeslam has been transferred from France and incarcerated in the Ittre prison in Belgium, and will have to be tried for his involvement in the Brussels attacks.
Defendants in the trial of the Paris attacks, including Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini, will soon be transferred from France to Belgium. The Belgian trial will begin next October.