Salah Abdeslam denounces an “unfair” trial and refuses to appear

Salah Abdeslam, sentenced to life imprisonment in France for the attacks of November 13, 2015, refused Monday, September 12 to appear in Brussels at the trial of the attacks committed in March 2016 in the Belgian capital by the same terrorist cell. The French jihadist, who is one of ten defendants in the trial, was taken from his cell when he did not plan to appear at this procedural hearing, according to his lawyers.

A few minutes after the opening of the hearing, around 9:30 a.m., he wished to leave the box. “The way you treat us is unfair”, he denounced to the address of the president. He was referring to the conditions of appearance in closed and glazed individual boxes, compared to “cages” by the defense lawyers, and limiting the possibilities of communication according to them. Several lawyers were counting on Monday to ask for the “demolition”.

Several of the nine defendants – a tenth, presumed dead, is tried in absentia – also criticized these boxes. “We are like dogs here”, thundered the Tunisian Sofien Ayari, an accomplice in Abdeslam’s escape, banging his fist on the window. While he had initially expressed the wish to stay, Salah Abdeslam changed his mind when he saw that Mohamed Abrini, Sofien Ayari and other co-defendants were being escorted out of their box.

On the morning of March 22, 2016, two jihadists blew themselves up at Brussels-Zaventem international airport, and a third a good hour later in the metro of the European capital. Result: 32 dead and more than 340 injured. The debates should not open until October. But a preliminary hearing was to settle various points of procedure on Monday, and in particular to fix the order of appearance of the witnesses who will succeed one another at the bar, a priori until June 2023.