(Brussels) The Belgian Ministry of Justice announced on Thursday that a new accused box, requested for the trial of the 2016 jihadist attacks in Brussels, would be ready on Monday, November 14, which paves the way for the resumption of hearings.
Posted at 8:02
Supposed to start on October 10 with the composition of the jury, this highly anticipated trial before the Brussels Assize Court has been postponed due to the controversial choice of a box compartmentalized into individual glass cells.
The president of the court Laurence Massart ordered the dismantling of the infrastructure in mid-September, judging it to violate the rights of the defense. These closed cells severely limited communication between the defendants and their lawyers.
Thursday, the ministry assured on its Twitter account that the box would be “quickly adapted” and that the trial could “resume on November 14”.
Interrupted after the procedural hearings held in mid-September, the trial will resume “normally” that day, qualified AFP Christine-Laura Kouassi, spokesperson for the ministry.
“We are releasing (the box) on that date and the court will decide on that basis,” she added.
The Brussels Court of Appeal said “take note that the premises will be available” on November 14. “But it’s up to the president to set new dates,” spokeswoman Anne Leclercq told AFP.
“It’s a whole relaunch machine, we are thinking about how to relaunch it as quickly and as best as possible,” she added.
With a thousand civil parties and approximately 370 witnesses expected at the bar, this trial is the largest ever organized before an assize court in Belgium. It is planned for the entire judicial year, until June 2023.
Ten men, including the French jihadist Salah Abdeslam, are accused of having participated or having been associated with the preparation of the attacks which left 32 dead and more than 340 injured on March 22, 2016 in Brussels.
Claimed by the Islamic State organization, these attacks were perpetrated by the jihadist cell already the origin of those of November 13, 2015 in France (130 dead in Paris and Saint-Denis).