Fresh start in terror trial in Brussels

Fresh start in terror trial in Brussels

Published: Less than 30 min ago

full screen A police officer on site in the converted courtroom in Brussels where those accused of the terrorist acts in 2016 are now being tried. Photo: Stephanie Lecocq/AP/TT

The trial against ten people for participation and involvement in the terrorist attacks in Brussels in March 2016 resumed on Wednesday, after reconstruction of the premises.

First on the agenda is jury selection, after which normal court proceedings will begin on Monday, December 5, and are then expected to last up to ten months.

The trial was supposed to have been underway since early October, but had to be postponed after the accused and their lawyers protested vehemently against the individual cages built for the accused in the courtroom at the former NATO headquarters in north-east Brussels.

Among the defendants is Swedish Osama Krayem, who has been singled out as an intended suicide bomber who is said to have repented at the last moment. Krayem has previously been sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for his involvement in the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015.

In the Brussels attack four months later, 32 people were killed at the city’s airport and Maelbeek metro station – including two Swedish women.

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