Belgium sentences suspects in 2016 airport terrorist attacks

The Special Court of Brussels has sentenced eight suspects responsible for the 2016 terror attacks on the Belgian capital that left 32 people dead.

As reported by Euronews, one of the co-authors of the attacks, Salah Abdeslam, received 20 years in prison. He is the only surviving member of the commandos who attacked Paris on 13 November 2015, which killed 130 people.

Abdeslam is a French citizen who grew up in Brussels. He was sentenced in June 2022 in France to life imprisonment for his part in the attacks.

The other defendants include Mohamed Abrini who accompanied the two jihadists who died as suicide bombers at Brussels-Zaventem airport, as well as Osama Krayem, Ali El Haddad Asufi, Bilal El Makhoukhi and Oussama Atar.

The latter, an emir of the Islamic State group who headed the jihadist cell, was tried in absentia as he is presumed to have died in Syria in 2017.