At the trial of the Brussels attacks, few excuses from the defendants

April 13, 2023

Most of the defendants in the trial of the attacks of March 22, 2016 in Brussels did not wish to apologize to the victims on Thursday, several arguing their innocence, on the last day of their interrogation before the Assize Court.

“Are you ready today to apologize to the victims?” asked a lawyer for the civil parties, Me Gabie-Ange Mindana, to the nine defendants tried for the double jihadist attack which left 32 dead and more than 340 injured at the airport and in the metro of the Belgian capital.

“Asking for forgiveness is recognizing my guilt and, I said it here, they are not my victims”, reacted Salah Abdeslam. “I was present to hear their suffering, this is how I can show them my compassion and respect,” added the only surviving member of the commandos of the jihadist attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris.

The 33-year-old Frenchman had during the trial in Paris a year ago presented, in tears, his apologies to the victims of the attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis (Parisian suburbs) which left 130 dead and hundreds injured.

Sentenced in France to incompressible life imprisonment for his role in these attacks, Salah Abdeslam denies having had knowledge of the plans for attacks in Brussels, perpetrated by the same jihadist cell as that of November 13.

Arrested on March 18, 2016 in Brussels after having remained hidden for several months in apartments with other members of the cell, he was in prison in Belgium when the double suicide attack took place.

The Tunisian Sofien Ayari, arrested at the same time as Salah Abdeslam, wished the victims “to be able to rebuild”. “How do you not have regrets about certain choices, certain ways of doing things?” he admitted. But “it is not enough to say specific words to please, it’s more complicated than that”.

The Belgian-Moroccan Mohamed Abrini had already apologized the day before to the victims and their relatives. “I have a share of responsibility so, of course, it hurts my heart to hear a victim say I forgive you, I extend my hand to you, I prefer to receive a slap,” he said Thursday, referring to the words of several civil parties.

Mohamed Abrini, 38, was sentenced in Paris to life imprisonment. He had given up participating in the attacks of November 13 by returning to Brussels the day before the attacks. He also gave up setting off his bomb at Brussels airport, leaving Najim Laachraoui and Ibrahim El Bakraoui to blow themselves up without him.

Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa, tried for having hosted Mohamed Abrini and another member of the cell – Osam Krayem, who also gave up on blowing himself up in Brussels -, also apologized. “I did not wait until 2023 to do it (…) I have a share of responsibility, but in spite of myself. It is in this sense that I presented my apologies to the victims”, he said. he says.

“I’m innocent, I don’t have to apologize, I’m sad but I have nothing to do with all that,” said Smaïl Farisi, also on trial for having hosted several members of the Brussels commando. His brother, Ibrahim Farisi, as well as Ali El Haddad Asufi, gave similar answers.

The Belgian-Moroccan Bilal El Makhoukhi, a former fighter of the Islamic State (IS) organization accused of having helped the perpetrators of the attacks, considered that the apologies should come “spontaneously”. “Frankly I want to” but “it has to be sincere, not because you asked me the question”, he said.

Swede Osama Krayem, who asserts his right to silence, was absent from the courtroom. A tenth defendant, Osama Atar, considered to be the order giver of the attacks in Brussels after having coordinated the attacks of November 13, is tried in his absence. He is presumed dead in the Iraqi-Syrian zone.