Brussels Bombings trial starts 6.5 years after terrorist attacks
Six and a half years after terrorist attacks at Maalbeek metro station and Zaventem airport in Brussels left 32 people dead and 340 others injured, the trial against the Brussels Bombings suspects is starting in the Belgian capital on Monday. Three Dutch tourists were among the people killed on 22 March 2016.
According to the Belgian judiciary, the nine suspects belong to the same terrorist cell responsible for the Paris attacks at the end of 2015. Salah Abdeslam, the only attacker to survive the Paris attacks, is also no trial for the bombings in Brussels, NOS reports. A French court already sentenced him to life in prison earlier this year.
According to the Belgian newspaper HLN, today’s hearing will take place in the former NATO building in the Brussels municipality of Evere. The introductory hearing will mainly focus on the individual glass boxes in which the suspects have to sit, the composition of the list of witnesses, and when they’ll testify.
The actual trial is scheduled to start on October 10 with the jury's composition. The first substantive hearing will be on October 13. The trial is expected to take six to nine months.
