They denounce their conditions of detention and routing to the Assize Court.
by Jean-Pierre Stroobants (Brussels, correspondent)
Once settled the thorny question of the glass boxes which isolated the nine accused of their lawyers and the difficult designation of the popular jury, the president, Laurence Massart, finally hoped to truly begin the trial of the March 2016 attacks in Brussels, Monday December 5. She will have done everything to achieve this and not accumulate other delays – the debates should have started several weeks ago already.
A sling of some of the accused against their conditions of detention and routing to this assize court sitting exceptionally in the old buildings of the Organization of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO), on the outskirts of the City, could undermine the magistrate’s projects. Their defenders demanded a reduction in strict measures imposed on their customers, failing which, they have announced, they will introduce appeals which would result in a new suspension of the audience.
Monday, M Massart intended to deliver a very educational presentation to the twelve effective members of the jury and their twenty-four substitutes (three of the latter have already invoked reasons to no longer sit). “Do not worry, if you are a little lost, it’s normal, insisted the president. But forget what you saw in the American series, here it will be very different.”
“humiliations “
She meticulously detailed the task that awaits these citizens, who, in their vast majority, have never set foot in a courthouse but suddenly discovered the three hundred cards summarizing the investigation, an act of Accusation of five hundred pages, the list of 957 civil parties and the “CAPs” – Conviction parts – exposed before their eyes: weapons, a flag of the Islamic State, large nuts which were to be placed in other bombs that those who killed 32 people at Zaventem airport and at Maelbeek metro station. Or, a twisted piece of metal, extracted from the train destroyed by the machine that a suicide bomber bore.
advocating serenity and inviting the rejection of the concept of revenge, the president must then know what she calls the “vagaries of the direct”. In this case an arrest of Mohamed Abrini, “The Hat Man”, a relative of Salah Abdeslam, who, twice, in Paris and Zaventem, has given up in extremis to participate in the actions of the commandos. “Revenge for seven years that I have suffered it. The conditions under which we are transferred to here are pitiful. If these humiliations continue, I will no longer answer any questions. In France, we were respected,” said This accused, one of the five who have already been sentenced to Paris in June.
You have 36.07% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.