Six people found guilty of terrorism-related murder at trial over 2016 Brussels attack

The five surviving defendants sit in a special glass box at the Palace of Justice in Brussels. Photo: OLIVIER MATTHYS/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

On Tuesday, a Brussels court found French citizen Salah Abdeslam and Belgian-Moroccan Mohamed Abrini guilty of jihadist attacks in the Belgian capital in 2016, which killed 32 people, after the largest criminal process in the country.

The celebrity couple, already sentenced to life in prison by France for the 2015 Paris massacre, were among six defendants convicted of “terrorism-related murder” in Belgium's biggest peacetime bombing.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks on 22 March 2016 at Brussels' main airport and metro system.

Hundreds of travelers and transport workers were maimed, and for seven years many victims, relatives and rescuers remain injured. .

Murder convictions leave those found guilty facing life imprisonment in Belgium. The verdict is expected after the summer holidays end in September.

The only surviving criminal in Paris

33-year-old Abdeslam is the only survivor of the 2015 Paris attack that killed 130 people. Prosecutors told the court that they believe the Belgian-based cell also rioted in the French capital on November 13, 2015.

Abdeslam fled to Brussels after participating in the attacks in Paris and hid for four months in an apartment where members of the local cell live.

He was arrested a few days before the attacks in Brussels.

But the jury, deliberating for more than two weeks, rejected his plea that he was not involved in the planning of the violence.

Abrini was found guilty of being one of the suicide bombing groups that attacked Brussels' main airport and train station ​metro.

He testified that he decided at the last minute not to blow himself up at the airport because the defendant, Osama Kraiem, a Swede of Syrian origin.

Kraiem was also found guilty of murder along with defendants Ali El-Haddad Asoufi and Bilal El-Mahouhi.

The suspect Osama Atar, who is believed to have died in an air strike in Syria, was convicted in absentia of organizing the attacks.

Two the other defendants, Tunisian Sophien Ayari and Rwandan Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa, were acquitted of murder but found guilty of participating in a terrorist group.

Brothers Smail and Ibrahim Farisi were acquitted of their charges.