Rabat – Salah Abdeslam, already jailed for participating in the 2015 Paris attacks, has refused to stand before a Belgian court on Monday, the first day of trial for the 2016 Brussels suicide bombings.
“The way in which you are treating us is unfair,” the 32-year-old Frenchman told the judge presiding over the case, before leaving the dock a few minutes after the first hearing started.
Abdeslam and eight other alleged ISIS members face terrorism charges in Belgium for their involvement in the 2016 Brussels bombings. A tenth suspect will be tried in absentia, as he is presumed to have died while fighting in Syria.
In addition to the Brussels bombing charges, Abdeslam has already been jailed for his involvement in the 2015 Paris attacks for which he was handed a 20 year-year prison sentence in Belgium, and a life sentence without parole in France.
Abdeslam was allegedly involved in hiring cars, flats, and hotel rooms for the perpetrators of the 2015 Paris attacks. He and another associate were arrested in 2016 after a nationwide manhunt.
The attacks, a series of coordinated suicide bombings and mass shootings over Paris, took the lives of more than 130 people, and wounded hundreds more.
Although he claimed in court to have never killed anyone, Abdeslam still stated support for the Islamic State. He was found guilty on all charges in France and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on June 29, 2022.
The Brussels attacks killed 32 people and wounded hundreds more, after three suicide bombers targeted the Brussels airport and a crowded underground metro station.
The trial is the largest ever in Belgian history, with 960 civil plaintiffs being represented in court. The former headquarters of the NATO alliance were converted into an advanced court complex for the purposes of the trial.
Abdeslam was transferred to Belgian authorities in July, following his sentencing in France. Evidential hearings for the trial are set to begin during October and could last until June 2023.
