Brussels, (Samajweekly) A court in Brussels found six out of 10 suspects guilty of “terrorist murder” in the March 2016 suicide bomb attacks that killed more than 30 people at the Belgian capital’s airport and a metro station.
Mohamed Abrini, Oussama Atar, Osama Krayem, Salah Abdeslam, Ali El Haddad Asufi and Bilal El Makhoukhi were all found guilty of terrorist murder, CNN quoted Belgian public broadcaster RTBF as saying in a report.
The Brussels court on Tuesday established a terrorist motive behind the attacks, ruling that the group’s intention was to intimidate the Belgian population and kill as many people as possible, the RTBF report added.
The trial began last year to determine whether 10 men played a part in the suicide bombings on March 22, 2016 that also injured over 300 people.
The court found that four further people should be added to the list of people killed in the attacks, bringing the death toll up to 36 people, according to RTBF.
The Islamic State (IS) had claimed responsibility for the attacks.
In 2022, Abdeslam was also found guilty of carrying out a series of deadly gun and bomb attacks in Paris in 2015, CNN reported.
Abdeslam, who is believed to be only surviving member of the group that carried out the French attacks, was given a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole by a French court.
Meanwhile, Oussama Atar who was absent from the Brussels trial, is presumed to have been killed in Syria, according to RTBF.
Brothers Smail and Ibrahim Farisi were both acquitted of the charge of participation in activities of a terrorist group, according to RTBF.
The two brothers were consequently not guilty of all charges filed against them.
Tuesday’s ruling marks the end of Belgium’s largest ever trial which included evidence from over 370 witnesses and experts.
