Prosecutor in Belgium to request forfeiture of nationality for 2016 terror attack defendants

By Nur Asena Erturk

ANKARA (AA) – The public prosecutor in Belgium will request the forfeiture of nationality for the defendants of the 2016 terror attacks, local media reported.

The prosecutor announced on Monday before the court that it will request the forfeiture for Mohamed Abrini, Ali El Haddad Asufi and Bilal El Makhouki, who have both Moroccan and Belgian nationalities, according to the daily Le Soir.

The request will also be made for Herve Bayingana Muhirwa, a Belgian-Rwandan national, and Oussama Atar (Belgian-Moroccan), who is presumed dead.

The session resumed after over a month and the court is set to decide on the sentences.

Six of the 10 accused, including figureheads Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini, were found guilty of “terrorist murder” and attempted murder in July, according to the Belga news agency, while eight of the 10 were also convicted of participating in the activities of a terrorist group.

The two defendants were acquitted of all charges, the report added.

Following the seven-month trial, the largest in Belgium’s judicial history, with more than 900 civil plaintiffs taking part, the six people found guilty of terrorist murder and attempted murder were Salah Abdeslam, Oussama Atar, Osama Krayem, ​Mohamed Abrini, Ali El Haddad Asufi and Bilal El Makhoukhi.

Abdeslam is already serving a life sentence in France for his role in the Paris terror attacks, which took place a year before the Brussels attack.

On March 22, 2016, a suicide attack was carried out at Zaventem Airport and Maelbeek metro station in Brussels, killing 32 people and wounding 270 others.

Daesh/ISIS claimed responsibility for both attacks.​​​​​​​