The terror trial in Brussels starts today Gunmen attack a mosque in Nigeria and kidnap believers

More than six years after the Islamic terror attacks in Brussels, the court hearings in the case will start on Monday (9 a.m.). The trial of the March 2016 attacks officially started in September, but hearings were delayed due to a dispute over how to house the accused in the chamber. You will now sit together in a glass box.

During the attacks on 22 March 2016, three suicide bombers from the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) detonated bombs at Zaventem airport in Brussels and at a metro station in the EU district. 32 people were killed and hundreds injured, some seriously. Ten people have been charged in the trial, one of whom is missing – it is believed he died in Syria.

Six of the accused had already been convicted in the trial of the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks. At that point, extremists had killed 130 people and injured 350 others in a series of attacks. The attacks in the French and Belgian capitals probably come from the same terrorist cell. The main defendant in the Paris trial, Salah Abdeslam, is now back in court in Brussels.

Eight defendants are charged with 32 counts of terrorist murder, attempted terrorist murder of 695 people and involvement in the activities of a terrorist organization. The defendants face more than 900 joint plaintiffs. Victims and victim organizations have repeatedly complained in recent years about insufficient and complicated support from the government.

Public interest in the trial is high – that’s why the trial is taking place in the converted building of the former NATO headquarters in the northeast of the city. The start of negotiations, originally scheduled for mid-October, was postponed due to a dispute over security measures.

At the start of the trial in September, the defense complained that the defendants had to sit in closed, individual glass cubicles. The chairman then ruled that the boxes were in violation of the human rights treaty. Instead, a large glass cabin should be provided in which the suspects can sit together. Due to the conversion, the official start of the negotiations was delayed. (sda/dpa)