A Belgian court sentenced Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam and a co-accused to 20 years in prison on Monday for trying to kill police during a shootout in Brussels in 2016.

Judge Marie-France Keutgen told the courtroom that 28-year-old Abdeslam and Tunisian Sofien Ayari, 24, had been found guilty of “attempted terrorist murder” during the shootout in March 2016.

Abdeslam is in a French prison awaiting trial for his role in the Islamic State attacks in Paris in November 2015 in which 130 people were killed. Prosecutors say he is the lone survivor of a suicide squad.

Neither he nor Ayari, who is in custody in Belgium, was present for the judgement.

Despite the absence of both accused, security was tight around the Brussels court, with heavily armed police on guard.

By the time of the shootout in the Brussels district of Forest on March 15, 2016, Abdeslam had been in hiding for four months after fleeing Paris the night his elder brother blew himself up at a cafe.

Prosecutors who accuse Abdeslam of helping organise the attacks and ferry former fighters from Syria around Europe say he, too, would have died if his suicide vest had not failed to detonate. His lawyers do not dispute Abdeslam was in Paris during the attacks.

They finally stumbled across him when, with French officers, they went to inspect a suspect apartment in Forest and then came under a hail of gunfire which wounded four of them.

After a three-hour siege ended with marksmen killing a 35-year-old Algerian called Mohamed Belkaid, police found an arms cache.

Abdeslam’s DNA found at the scene linked him to the shootout and that led to his arrest three days later in a different apartment in Brussels.

Four days after his arrest, suicide bombers attacked Brussels Airport and the city’s metro, killing 32 people. Officials believe Abdeslam had links with the bombers and that they brought forward their attack because they feared Abdeslam might reveal their plans under interrogation.

Abdeslam was present on the opening day of the trial, but refused to answer the judge’s questions.

His lawyer Sven Mary told reporters on Monday that he discuss the case with his client before determining whether to appeal.

]]> 7277 https://www.faith-matters.org/parisian-eyes-on-brussels-court-as-bataclan-suspect-goes-on-trial/ Sun, 04 Feb 2018 23:19:37 +0000 https://www.faith-matters.org/?p=7066

More than two years after Islamist militants killed 130 people in their city, Parisians will be hoping for some new insight into the carnage when the sole surviving suspect appears in public for the first time on Monday.

But Salah Abdeslam, who goes on trial under high security in his native Brussels in relation to a shooting that preceded his capture and Islamic State suicide bombings there in March 2016, has so far shown little inclination to talk.

Kept under 24-hour suicide watch near Paris, 28, the 28-year-old has been transferred to a high-security prison close to France’s northern border so that he can be ferried to the Belgian capital’s Palace of Justice daily. Hearings are scheduled to last all week in a case related to events four months after the Paris attacks of November 2015.

With a French trial not expected until next year, his Belgian appearance, along with alleged accomplice Sofien Ayari, a 24-year-old Tunisian, will be his first moment in public since his arrest on March 18, 2016, close to his family home in the poor, western Brussels borough of Molenbeek.

Both men face up to 40 years in prison for attempted murder linked to terrorism for shooting at Belgian and French police who raided a suspected hideout in the southern Brussels borough of Forest on March 15, 2016.

Prosecutors say Abdeslam and Ayari slipped away, leaving a third gunman holding out until he was killed by police marksmen.

Lawyers for Abdeslam, a French citizen born to and raised by Moroccan immigrant parents in Brussels, accept he was in Paris on Friday, Nov. 13, when gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 at a rock concert, near the national stadium and outside cafes.

His elder brother, with whom he ran a bar in Brussels, was among those who blew himself up. Prosecutors believe the younger Abdeslam, whom they accuse of running logistics for the attack including ferrying fighters from Syria across Europe, would have met the same fate had his explosive vest not malfunctioned.

How the pair, from a broadly secular background with a history of petty crime, were transformed into alleged cogs within extensive Islamic State cells operating in Belgium and France is unclear. A third brother, who has visited Abdeslam in prison, told a Belgian newspaper in December that he might be preparing to talk, inspired by a devout religious faith.

The trial had been due to start in late December but was delayed after Abdeslam belatedly reappointed a defence counsel, who then requested more time to prepare the case. Lawyers do not rule out that there could be further adjournments this week.

The trial has triggered a high alert in a city where 32 people were killed in suicide bombings at its airport and on its metro system by members of the same Islamic State-inspired group on March 22, 2016. That came four days after Abdeslam’s arrest and was prompted, officials believe, by fears among the Brussels cell that he might betray their plan under interrogation.

More than 100 police are expected to be deployed in and around Brussels’ mammoth 19th-century Palace of Justice, which dominates the skyline over the Renaissance city centre.

When Moroccan-born former boxer Mohamed Idrissi orders a young man out of his gym for smoking, the respect is tangible.

The youngster stubs out his cigarette and leaves, head bowed. Inside the gym, the muted thud of leather gloves striking punchbags resumes.

Idrissi’s influence goes beyond his job as a coach at the Brussels Boxing Academy, near the Molenbeek district of the Belgian capital where Islamist militants, several of them of Moroccan origin, planned last year’s deadly Paris attacks.

He also has an informal role mentoring youths facing what Reuters interviews with local officials, social workers and residents of Molenbeek suggest is a growing feeling of alienation and increasingly tense relations with police.

Building trust in communities such as Molenbeek is seen by police as vital for gathering intelligence and countering the threat of Islamic State, and respected local figures like Idrissi have a part to play.

“Boxing is a philosophy which I tell them to apply in life,” Idrissi said of his young boxers at the gym in a primary school in central Brussels, across an industrial-era canal from the halal shops, tea parlours and mosques of Molenbeek.

“I tell them: ‘You have to fight to be Belgian’,” said the 34-year-old, who deserted from the Moroccan military police a decade ago while taking part in a boxing competition.

Since the Nov. 13 bloodshed in Paris, security has been tightened in Molenbeek, a district described by its own mayor as a “breeding ground” for violence, and many Muslims say they feel stigmatised.

Idrissi is angered by frequent police checks of people with Moroccan roots which he sees as racial profiling although police deny this. But he bites his tongue in the presence of young men to avoid repeating “the kind of comments we warn parents can feed into their radicalisation.”

Some parents, he says, have turned to him to talk their sons out of plans to join Islamist militants in Syria. Police also visited the gym this year as part of a programme to improve their image with youngsters.

At least five men who trained there have travelled to Syria. One, Ayoub Bazarouj, was detained in December on suspicion of having links to the Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed. He was released in January without charge.

Another, Ahmed Dahmani, was arrested in Turkey last year on suspicion of scouting out sites for the militant strikes. Police released a photograph of Dahmani at the gym, holding his fists up as if ready to throw a punch at the camera. Belgium asked for his extradition from Turkey earlier this year.

Idrissi declined comment when asked about his interaction with police over some of his young charges going to Syria.

“LATENT ISLAMOPHOBIA”

A failure to stop the militant cell behind the Paris attacks from carrying out more bombings — 32 people were killed in bombings on the Brussels metro and at the city’s international airport on March 22 — has highlighted the police lack of knowledge of Molenbeek and their few ties with its residents.

The police are also hard pressed to overcome the fear of IS that discourages possible informants. One resident, Hawa Keita, has received death threats since informing on the network that enticed her son to Syria and says: “We live in fear.”

Having eyes on the ground is vital for plugging the intelligence gaps, many officers say.

“It’s not enough to bug phones: you need to know what you are listening for,” Andre Jacob, a former head of Belgium’s State Security agency, the Surete de l’Etat.

As in similar communities across Europe, Belgian police are struggling to build bridges with young Muslims at the same time as they hunt for militants. They have carried out dozens of raids and arrests in Belgium in recent months.

The Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities (UNIA), an advocacy group which also works with police on rights issues, says the number of calls to its hot lines complaining about alleged abuse by police has jumped since the Paris attacks.

Its director, Patrick Charlier, witnessed what he called latent Islamophobia in workshops his organisation conducted with police before the Paris attacks. Such sentiment, he suggests, is now out in the open.

“We all of a sudden had a number of cases (of complaints against police),” Charlier said, but declined to give figures, saying it was too soon to assess.

Residents in Molenbeek are angered by some of the comments made about the Muslim population in Belgium, including the interior minister’s suggestion that many Muslims danced in celebration after the Brussels bombings.

“Being rejected, relegated to trash schools, it’s not surprising it ends in bombs,” said 48-year-old Milodi Rahma. “We are doubly victimised: victims of IS and of Islamophobia.”

“US AND THEM”

Belgium has announced a 39-million-euro ($44 million) plan to improve police coordination in Brussels, including boosting staff in Molenbeek for the first time in two decades. The district now has an eight-person unit, whose task is to prevent radicalisation.

But tight budgets means police can end up wearing two hats.

“One day they’re taking part in a big violent raid and the next they’re supposed to go out and chat,” said Vincent Gilles, who heads the Belgian police union. “A community policeman needs to be seen … as a partner, not an enemy.”

The suspicion cuts both ways in Molenbeek, where the IS cell spent months planning the Paris carnage and where one suspect, Salah Abdeslam, hid with what many officers believe was the blessing of the community.

“You can’t tell me no one knew where he was,” said Kris Vanstraeten, a police inspector in the area.

When police did find him, some youths hurled glass bottles and insults at them.

Molenbeek mayor Françoise Schepmans, who made her comment about the district of 95,000 being a nest of violence two days after the Paris attacks, says the police have a difficult role and relations are as good as they can be.

“It’s there to handle security, not to babysit,” she said.

But she says too few police know the areas where they operate. Of 50 federal officers sent to work in Molenbeek after the March bombings, none was even from the capital.”Sometimes we have young policemen who arrive and say ‘Uh-oh, where am I?’,” said local police spokesman Johan Berckmans.

Acknowledging that breaking down barriers was difficult, he said: “It’s always a question of ‘us and them’.”

Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in November’s Paris attacks, will be extradited to France from Belgium in a few weeks to allow for additional questioning by Belgian investigators, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Abdeslam, who returned from Paris hours after the Islamic State attacks in which his brother blew himself up, hid from police for four months until he was captured in a raid on a house in the Brussels district of Molenbeek on March 18.

His finger prints were found three days earlier in an apartment in the southern Brussels borough of Forest after a gunbattle  during which an Islamist gunman was shot dead and four police officers were injured.

Prosecutors want to question him about that incident, his lawyer said. “There is a hearing, which will take place regarding the attempted murder of several police officers during the home search in Forest,” Sven Mary told reporters.

Abdeslam, who previously said that he wanted to be extradited to France, was not present at a court hearing in Brussels on Thursday.

“As I said, he wishes to go to France and that is the reason that things need to proceed and why we hope that it will be over in a few weeks,” Mary added.

The shooting and bombing rampage by Islamic State militants killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.

(Reporting by Jan Vermeylen; Writing by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop/Mark Heinrich) – for Reuters

This is the shocking video of a Muslim woman in Moelenbeek who was run over on Saturday. Moelenbeek has become a rallying point for demonstrations and counter-demonstrations and has also drawn in far right groups to the area.

The victim was left unconscious as she was hit by the vehicle as she carried her shopping across the road. She appears not to have life threatening injuries.

The Daily Mail has stated that the individual driving the vehicle even took pictures as the car drove towards the Muslim female and the incident took place after a far right rally in the area. The Mail initially suggested that the perpetrators may have links to far right groups. However, according to Belgian police, the perpetrators are two local residents of North African or Arab heritage.

The post Muslim Woman Deliberately Run Over in Moelenbook, Brussels. appeared first on TELL MAMA.

This is the shocking video of a Muslim woman in Moelenbeek who was run over on Saturday. Moelenbeek has become a rallying point for demonstrations and counter-demonstrations and has also drawn in far right groups to the area.

The victim was left unconscious as she was hit by the vehicle as she carried her shopping across the road. She appears not to have life threatening injuries.

The Daily Mail has stated that the individual driving the vehicle even took pictures as the car drove towards the Muslim female and the incident took place after a far right rally in the area. The Mail has initially suggested that the perpetrators may have links to far right groups. However, according to Belgian police, the perpetrators are local residents of Moelenbeek of Arab heritage and two individuals have been arrested.

The post Muslim Woman Run Over in Moelenbook, Brussels. appeared first on TELL MAMA.

As another terrorist attack rocks Europe and in the heart of Brussels, the reality is that Daesh or IS are sending a set of signals to us all. The first is that they can hit back in a European city and create huge fear and apprehension which causes significant ripples and impacts for the life of a major city like Brussels. The second is that by killing fellow citizens, Daesh believes it can split and drive a wedge between communities.

We know that Daesh promote the narrative that Europe does not accept Muslims and according to them, humiliates Islam. It suggests that Muslims should leave Europe for Iraq and Syria and this is a cynical and toxic narrative which ends up with Muslims being used as cheap cannon fodder for this nihilistic group. None of these narratives are true or accurate, yet, anti-Muslim responses to terrorism and the fuelling of it by far right networks who promote anti-Muslim bigotry, play into the hands of Daesh. So, communities as a whole are caught in-between different competing dynamics.

All of us are at risk of terrorism and families have lost loved ones whose lives have simply been taken away in an instant. There are therefore instantaneous impacts on communities, reactions against those communities which share characteristics with the perpetrators and longer term grievances that are created.

For example, after Charlie Hebdo, the brutal murder of Lee Rigby and the Paris terrorist murders, the rise in anti-Muslim hatred was measurable and palpable as we found through the Tell MAMA project that I founded. It was also recorded through police statistics.  What has become clear through the work we do in Tell MAMA, is that terrorism is one of the major drivers of anti-Muslim hatred and with that, such spikes also re-enforce the narrative of Daesh. Terrorism therefore has multiple impacts across the board.

Over the last 2 years, we have seen incident after incident, both at a national and international level that has spiked anti-Muslim hatred and with an increasing amount of anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic rhetoric at a street, political and online level. Anti-Muslim bigotry is particularly problematic as it further alienates a whole group of people, many of whom may be settled citizens in a European country. Such language may not only further alienate the more Conservative elements in Muslim communities, those easily identified as Muslims and who have strong feelings of being marginalised and targeted for prejudice, it also alienates the more liberal parts of Muslim communities. When this takes place, Daesh does not need to throw the net to draw in young disaffected souls, anti-Muslim bigotry simply plays into its hands.

These are difficult elements to comprehend as Daesh strikes again into Europe and into the heart of our communities. The pictures and the anger that follow are understandable and are a natural and normal reaction to the brutal murder of so many innocent people. The response however, needs to steer away from anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic rhetoric which has become so much of the norm online and in some parts of Europe. This does not mean that people cannot question religion, but much of the anger is not about religious or theological differences, much of the anger is driven by a growing sense of antagonism towards Muslim communities.

Let us also hope that in the coming days, press headlines do not place ‘Muslims’ as the keyword which they know sells papers. By re-enforcing this term in press headlines, the impression given is that ‘they’ (Muslims) are against us (the rest of society). Instead, headlines should re-iterate the collective fight against extremism, Muslim and non-Muslim, black, white and brown. Such subtle changes in language may seem irrelevant, but they have huge impacts on the future security and cohesion within our countries.

Statement by the Director of Faith Matters – Fiyaz Mughal OBE

The mass murder and carnage that took place today in Brussels has led to a measured response from the public and from others on social media. The sheer brutality of the killing has led to a response that has talked of communities ‘coming together’ against the extremists and terrorists. This is the right and proportionate response.

We talk much of the values of Europe and European communities. No-one can feel the pain of those families who have instantaneously lost loved ones this morning. Their pain and their memories may last a lifetime. At this time, we stand with them when they try and come to terms with what has happened.

Today in Europe, we face the threat of indiscriminate terrorism which targets public places where people gather. What many of the perpetrators look for is death and carnage, in their minds, safe in the knowledge that they have undertaken their instructions from cell leaders or even directly from Daesh or IS rhetoric. Where possible, these individuals should be captured alive as Belgian police did with Salah Abdeslam. No doubt, by interrogating these individuals and by putting them on trial, their aim of being lionised as people ‘who attacked the West’, can be be eroded and a picture shown to the public of their broken lives and their twisted narratives.

Yet, we should also ensure that reactions to the murders today do not stray into marginalising Muslim communities as a whole. Muslim communities are a solution to tackling the influences of groups like Daesh and IS. By marginalising them through press headlines, anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry and prejudice, we risk handing Daesh publicity and potential recruits which they could not have been able to access. We must therefore ensure that we include Muslim communities in the long term struggle against the rhetoric of Daesh and IS, as well as other groups who seek to drive a wedge between Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. If anything, the values that we hold dear of pluralism, tolerance and the rule of law have real relevance at this time as we pursue peace through reducing the scourge of terrorism.