A jury on Tuesday convicted six people on terrorist murder charges for the 2016 terrorist attacks at the Brussels airport and a subway station that killed 32 people. Known as the deadliest peacetime attack in Belgium, the terrorist incident is part of a wave of deadly attacks in Europe linked to the Islamic Group.
Among the people who were found guilty of terrorist murder is Salah Abdeslam, who is already serving a life sentence serving a life sentence without parole in France for his role in the 2015 attacks on Paris cafes, the Bataclan theatre and France's national stadium, AP reported. He was the only survivor of the France attack, which killed around 130 people.
This was the biggest trial in Belgium's judicial history, led by the chief and a 12-member jury. Ten defendants were on trial, out of whom two people were acquitted of all charges, eight were convicted of participating in the activities of a terrorist group and six of terrorist murder.
The sentencing will be decided in a separate process on or after September.
On March 22, 2016, the Zaventem airport and the Brussels subway's central commuter line were attacked by terrorists. Apart from the 32 killed in the Brussels attacks that shook the city, hundreds were wounded or suffered serious mental trauma. The judge, making a connection between the ideology of the Islamic State and the attacks, said that the attackers wanted to intimidate Belgian society.
Four additional deaths were also attributed to the attacks, including a survivor who later took his own life because of mental suffering and another who had to stop cancer treatment due to injuries sustained in the attack, as per reports.
"We have been waiting for this for seven years, seven years that weighed heavily on the victims. ... We are waiting with impatience, and with some anguish," said a survivor before the verdict was announced.
Abdeslam was captured in Brussels on March 18, 2016, which might have prompted other members of the Islamic State to attack the Belgium capital. Abdeslam's childhood friend Mohamed Abrini was also convicted of terrorist murder.
Oussama Atar, a possible organizer of the deadly attacks on both Paris and Brussels, was convicted of terrorist murder in absentia. He is believed to have died in the Islamic State group’s final months of fighting in Iraq and Syria.
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