The Belgian Justice finds guilty six of the ten accused of the attacks in Brussels

A Belgian people's jury found guilty of terrorist murder on Tuesday six of the ten defendants for the attacks in Brussels in March 2016. These caused 32 deaths and some 300 injuries in two attacks at the airport and a metro station in the city.

These are Salah Abdeslam, who also participated in the Paris attacks in 2015, Mohamed Abrini, Osama Krayem, Ali El Haddad Asufi, Bilal El Makhoukhi and Osama Atar, the alleged ringleader of the plot who is considered to have died in Syria in 2017, for which he was tried in absentia.

The jury, on the other hand, has acquitted the other three defendants for the same – Sofien Ayari, Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa and Smail Faris – while the tenth man who sat on the bench, Ibrahim Farisi, was not charged with this crime.

The president of the court that judges the case, Laurence Massart, read this Tuesday the verdict issued by the jury after several days of deliberation and seven months of hearings, although the sentence will be decided next September.

In addition to the charges of terrorist murder, the ten defendants are charged with attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group, with the exception of Ibrahim Farisi, who is charged only with the latter offence. After seven months of hearings, the twelve members of the jury withdrew to deliberate on July 6 and, after eighteen days in which they have remained isolated, this Monday they reached a verdict.

The judge will read this Tuesday the conclusions of the 287 questions to which they have had to answer with “yes” or “no”, justifying them to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendants. Once the verdict is known, the jury and the three magistrates will meet again in September to determine the penalties that those convicted will face.