5 defendants leave courtroom in protest of terror trial in Brussels

By Anadolu Agency Staff

BRUSSELS (AA) – Convicted terrorist Salah Abdeslam and four of his co-defendants walked out of a Brussels courtroom Wednesday morning to protest what they called "undignified" conditions during the transfer from the detention facility to the trial over the March 2016 terror attacks.

"All we want is to talk, all we want is to defend ourselves," said Ali El Haddad Asufi, another defendant. But "everything is being done to break us psychologically," he added, before also leaving the defendants' box.

The Brussels jury court had opened hearings Monday in the trial of 10 men accused of involvement in the March 22, 2016, terrorist attacks on the Brussels metro and airport that killed 32 people and injured more than 300.

The joint plaintiffs in the trial, which is scheduled to last seven months, include about 1,000 people. They hope to understand the motives for the attacks they or their relatives suffered.

The suicide attacks, which were claimed by the terrorist group Daesh/ISIS, are believed to have been carried out by a terrorist cell that was already responsible for the attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis the previous November that killed 130 people.

Nine men are on trial, including Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the November 2015 terror cell, who got a sentence this summer of life without parole for the Paris attacks. A tenth will be tried in absentia, as he is believed to have died in Syria.

Six of the 10 defendants have already been convicted in the trial for the November 2015 attacks in Paris and at the Stade de France. Abdeslam and Abrini each got life sentences in Paris.

Compared with the nine defendants, only a few dozen of the 1,000 victims already counted by the Belgian judiciary were present at the start of the trial Monday. These joint plaintiffs included parents or relatives of the 32 dead and people injured by the explosions or traumatized by the attacks.

Unlike the trial in Paris, the defendants in Brussels will be judged by a jury that was formed last Friday. The defendants had already protested conditions for the transfer from the detention facility to the courtroom at the start of the trial on Monday.​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​