Mohamed Abrini, a Belgian-Moroccan man from Brussels, has been convicted by courts in two countries over two separate terrorist attacks: those in Paris on November 13, 2015, which killed 130 people, and those in Brussels on March 22, 2016, which killed 32 people and wounded hundreds. In Paris, on June 29, 2022, the special assize court sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years. In Brussels, an assize court jury found him guilty on July 25, 2023 of murder linked to terrorism, and on September 15, 2023 the court sentenced him to 30 years in prison plus 5 years under supervision.
The two cases share a set of defendants. Several men were tried in Paris in 2021 and 2022 and again in Brussels in 2022 and 2023, among them Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the Paris attack teams, and Osama Krayem. Abrini is a childhood friend of Abdeslam and a Brussels native, and that friendship runs through both trials.
On the evening of Friday, November 13, 2015, a series of coordinated attacks struck the French capital and the suburb of Saint-Denis. In all, 130 people died. About 400 were wounded. The survivors, relatives and witnesses who attended the trial numbered in the hundreds. The Islamic State group, as the courts name it, claimed the attacks.
Of the twenty men accused in Paris, only Abdeslam was alleged to have taken part in the attacks themselves and survived. The others were accused of plotting or of giving logistical support, and Abrini was among those accused of logistical support.
On the morning of March 22, 2016, four months after Paris and days after Abdeslam's arrest in Belgium, a second series of attacks struck Brussels. Thirty-two people were killed, and hundreds were wounded. It is described as the deadliest attack in Belgium in peacetime. The Islamic State group claimed the attacks that day.
The Brussels court revised the toll in July 2023. It linked three further deaths to the attacks and so raised the official figure from 32 to 35. In the judgment on the cell's leaders, the court found Oussama Atar guilty of the terrorist murders of 35 victims and the attempted murders of almost 700 people.
The Paris trial opened in September 2021 before the special assize court, which sat as a panel of five judges. It was described as the largest trial in modern French history, with more than 2,000 witnesses and over a million pages of evidence, and it was held in a specially built courtroom. Twenty men were tried. Fourteen appeared in person, and six were tried in their absence because they were missing and presumed dead.
Abrini was one of the fourteen. The verdicts were read on Wednesday, June 29, 2022, after a trial of about nine to ten months. All twenty were convicted, and the terrorism charge against one defendant, Farid Kharkach, was dropped. The court gave Abdeslam the harshest sentence available under French law, a whole-life sentence that leaves only a narrow chance of review after 30 years. Abrini received life imprisonment with a minimum of 22 years before he could seek release.
The court sentenced Mohamed Bakkali, Osama Krayem and Sofien Ayari to 30 years each, with two thirds to be served, and Ahmed Dahmani, who was tried in absence while held in Turkey, also to 30 years. Other defendants received terms between two years and 18 years. Five men believed to have died, among them Fabien Clain, Jean-Michel Clain and Oussama Atar, were given life terms in their absence. The parties had ten days to appeal.
The Brussels trial began at the end of 2022 and was described as the largest criminal trial in Belgian history. It was heard before a jury and magistrates of the assize court of Brussels-Capital under tight security. Ten men were on trial.
The jury deliberated for more than two weeks. On Tuesday, July 25, 2023, it returned its verdicts. Six defendants were found guilty of murder linked to terrorism: Abdeslam, Abrini, Krayem, Ali El Haddad Asufi, Bilal El Makhoukhi and, in his absence, Atar. Ayari and Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa were acquitted of murder but found guilty of taking part in the activities of a terrorist group. Two brothers were acquitted of all charges. The jury rejected Abdeslam's claim that he had not been involved in the planning. The court found Abrini guilty as a member of one of the teams assigned to the attacks. Abrini's lawyer called the verdict an important moment and said attention would now turn to the sentences.
The sentencing took place on the evening of Friday, September 15, 2023, with the presiding judge, Laurence Massart, reading the decisions. Atar, Krayem and Makhoukhi received life imprisonment. Krayem and Makhoukhi were also sentenced to a further 10 years, and Atar to a further 14 years. Abrini was sentenced to 30 years in prison plus 5 years under supervision. His convictions were terrorist murder, attempted murder and membership of a terrorist group. The court did not take away his Belgian nationality. Asufi received 20 years plus 10 years under supervision, and Muhirwa 10 years and a fine of 3,000 euros.
Abdeslam and Ayari received no additional sentence, because the court judged their earlier sentences, including Abdeslam's life term in France and a 20-year term in a separate Belgian case, to be sufficient. The federal prosecutor could still challenge that decision before the Court of Cassation. Hearings on civil claims by the victims were set for September 20, 2023.
By September 2023 Abrini was already serving the life sentence imposed in France in 2022, and the Brussels court added its own term of 30 years plus 5 years under supervision.
France tried the Paris attacks before a special assize court, and under its sentencing rules a life sentence can carry a minimum term before release may be sought. The Paris court set a 22-year term for Abrini and applied the whole-life sentence to Abdeslam. Belgium tries murder before a jury at the assize court. A murder conviction there carries life imprisonment as its maximum, and the Brussels court also added periods under supervision to several sentences.
Abrini contested the murder charges in Brussels. The jury found him guilty as a member of one of the teams assigned to the attacks of March 22, 2016, and that finding is the basis of his Belgian conviction for terrorist murder.
November 13, 2015: Coordinated attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis kill 130 people.
March 22, 2016: Attacks in Brussels kill 32 people; the court later sets the toll at 35.
September 2021: The Paris trial of 20 defendants opens before the special assize court.
June 29, 2022: Abrini is sentenced to life imprisonment with a 22-year minimum term; Abdeslam receives a whole-life sentence.
End of 2022: The Brussels assize trial opens.
July 25, 2023: The Brussels jury finds Abrini guilty of murder linked to terrorism, with five others.
September 15, 2023: Abrini is sentenced to 30 years in prison plus 5 years under supervision; he keeps Belgian nationality.
September 20, 2023: Hearings on civil claims by victims are scheduled in Brussels.