Following the preliminary hearing of the 22 March 2016 terror attacks trial in Brussels, the counsel for one of the accused, Smaïl Farisi, noted that a request for release from his client would need to be examined soon.
The Brussels Indictment Chamber will need to consider Ibrahim Farisi’s request for release this week, as well as that of his brother Smaïl Farisi, Counsel Sébastien Courtoy stressed following Monday’s hearing at the Brussels Assise Court.
Ibrahim Farisi’s lawyer, Xavier Carrette, had sent his own request to the Assise Court, but the court had referred him to the Indictment Chamber. Courtoy therefore followed in the footsteps of his colleague and submitted a request for the release of his client.
Smaïl Farisi is the man who initially rented the apartment in Etterbeek that served as a hideout for terror suspect Ossama Krayem and the suicide bomber involved in the March 2016 attacks, Khalid El Bakraoui.
After the attacks of 22 March, the Farisi brothers emptied and cleaned the apartment from top to bottom. They were placed under arrest during the investigation, then released.
For the trial's preliminary hearing, the federal prosecutor’s office decided on Wednesday to have the two brothers re-arrested.
Smaïl Farisi was held immediately, while his brother Ibrahim presented himself to federal police on Thursday evening in Brussels. From there, he was transferred to Leuze-en-Hainaut Prison.
