After six months of hearings and the hearing of hundreds of witnesses, the trial of the March 2016 attacks in Brussels has just entered a new phase. This Tuesday, the prosecution began its requisitions. A large part of this first day was devoted to Mohamed Abrini, the one who gave up blowing himself up at Brussels-Zaventem airport, the one who was nicknamed during the investigation “the man in the hat” because of his appearance on surveillance cameras. For the prosecution, Mohamed Abrini is as guilty of terrorist attacks as those who finally blew themselves up in the middle of the crowd killing sixteen people in the terminal.
With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet
According to the prosecutors, Mohamed Abrini is indeed one of the perpetrators of the attack on the Brussels airport of Zaventem in the same way as the two other terrorists who blew themselves up. For the prosecution, the fact that Mohamed Abrini gave up at the last minute does not change anything. He did not give up, he just fled because he waited for the first explosion to decide to leave Zaventem airport.
“ He gave up on dying, not on committing the attack “, asserts the prosecutor who adds” survival reflex or cowardice of the one who did not want to go all the way “. He is linked to the manufacture of the TATP explosive which was used in Zaventem and the Maelbeek metro station and he knew full well how to defuse his bomb. Instead, without even removing his explosive cart that remains in the middle of the crowd, he just leaves the terminal.
Before that, he had had many opportunities to leave the terrorist cell to return to Syria. He says it was his intention, but he never took those opportunities. For the prosecution, nothing exonerates Mohamed Abrini from his guilt of ” co-author ” attacks.