The final curtain has fallen over the biggest-ever trial in Belgium as none of the parties involved in the trial of the 2016 Brussels terror attacks has appealed in cassation, meaning that the sentences handed down by the court on 15 September are now final.
None of the convicted men has filed cassation appeals against the rulings on either the question of guilt or sentencing for their role in the terrorist attacks on 22 March 2016 in Brussels Airport in Zaventem and the Maelbeek metro station, press judge Luc Hennart confirmed to VRT. The eight convicted men had until Monday to appeal.
At the end of July, six perpetrators (Oussama Atar, Mohamed Abrini, Osama Krayem, Salah Abdeslam, Ali El Haddad Asufi and Bilal El Makhouki) were declared guilty of the terrorist murder of 32 people and attempted terrorist murder of hundreds more.
Atar (the leader of the terror group), Krayem (who was supposed to have blown himself up in the Maelbeek metro, but backed out) and El Makhouki (who made the practical arrangements for the entire attack) were given life sentences by the jury.
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Abrini (who fled without detonating his suitcase of explosives in Brussels Airport) was sentenced to 30 years in prison and El Haddad Asufi (who provided logistical help to the terrorist group) to 20 years.
Abdeslam received no additional sentence, as he had already been sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the 2015 Paris attacks and also received 20 years in prison in Belgium for his role in a shooting in Forest, a few days before the Brussels attacks.
Two others, Sofien Ayari and Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa, were not found guilty of murder but only of belonging to a terror group.
Like Abdeslam, Ayari did not receive an additional sentence as he had already been sentenced to 30 years in Paris as well as 20 years in Belgium for the Forest shooting. Muhirwa was sentenced to ten years in prison and a fine.
