BRUSSELS — Six years after
Belgium’s deadliest peacetime
attack, a Brussels court will this week host a landmark trial that survivors
hope will mark a step forward in their recovery and that of their nation.
اضافة اعلان
The case against alleged members of a Daesh cell
that launched both the March 2016 suicide bombings in Brussels and the November
2015 attacks in Paris will begin Monday.
The Belgian attacks, in which three suicide bombers
hit Brussels airport and a crowded underground metro station, killed 32 people
and shattered the lives of hundreds of survivors.
Nine alleged terrorists, including the cell’s
32-year-old French ring-leader
Salah Abdeslam, will face a variety of charges.
One, thought to have been killed in Syria, will be tried in absentia.
The trial will be the largest ever staged in front
of a Belgian jury, with 960 civil plaintiffs represented and the sprawling
former headquarters of the NATO military alliance converted into a
high-security court complex.
Abdeslam, already convicted in France and sentenced
to life for his role in Paris, will not attend Monday’s preliminary hearing,
his lawyer said.
‘Turn the page’
But many of the victims of
the attacks are planning to attend the trial from day one, seeking
understanding and closure following the carnage.
“My life was completely destroyed. I lost my
friends, gave up my hobby as a pilot,” said Philippe Vandenberghe, an airport
manager who rushed to assist wounded passengers and now suffers from
post-traumatic stress disorder.
Vandenberghe had a first aid certificate, but
nothing to prepare him for the aftermath of an indiscriminate suicide bombing
on a crowded airport concourse.
He faced screaming victims engulfed in thick smoke
and surrounded by broken glass and twisted metal.
The image of two children who had just lost their
mother haunts him.
“I gave first aid to 18 different people. I’m sure
that I saved one woman,” the 51-year-old told AFP at his home in
Louvain-la-Neuve.
Today he is unemployed, after a legal battle with
his former employer and insurer over medical bills. He paints, helps charity
groups, and is training as an ambulance driver.
On Monday he will be in court, hoping that the trial
will mark the start of a new stage in his recovery.
“We’re hoping that our suffering will be recognized,
that’s the important part,” he said.
Before the bombings Sebastien Bellin, now 44, was a
professional basketballer. Now, after around 15 surgeries, he has lost the use
of one of his legs, and still re-lives the experience.
“I don’t know if one can turn the page, what
happened will always exist within us,” he said.
“Personally, I’ve given up on all hate, that would
waste the energy I need to rebuild myself. I’ve also accepted my handicap,” he
said, describing the trial as an “important step”.
Some victims and witnesses won’t attend the hearings.
Police commander Christian De Coninck will follow from home, doubtful the
accused will say anything constructive.
“They’re not worth my time to make the trip,” he
told AFP. “I don’t want to hear them spouting rubbish about their unhappy
childhoods, the influential imams, the duty to fight for the caliphate.”
After Monday’s preliminary hearing, the court will
sit again on October 10 to choose 12 jurors and 24 potential substitutes.
Evidential hearings will begin on October 13 and last eight months, until June
next year.
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