Belgian justice will say on January 5 if it wishes the referral to an assize court of Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, with seven other suspects of the jihadist attacks of March 2016 in Brussels, as claimed by the Belgian federal prosecutor.
Read also: Attacks in Brussels: dress rehearsal before an extraordinary trial
Among the 13 accused, eight risk the assizes for "
assassinations committed in a terrorist context
", two could be referred to a criminal court and three other beneficiaries of a dismissal for lack of sufficient charges.
In any case, this is what the federal prosecutor's office wants, as he reaffirmed during a so-called “
procedural regulation
” hearing
completed Wednesday morning in front of the council chamber of the Brussels court.
According to a judicial source, the prosecution's indictment was not contested by anyone during this closed hearing, where a handful of defendants - the main ones were absent - faced the victims' lawyers.
"
Many lawyers have not pleaded, reserving their arguments for the trial
", which should not intervene before 2022, explained one of them.
On the morning of March 22, 2016, a double attack with explosives, at the airport and then in a train of the Brussels metro, had 32 dead and more than 340 injured.
Perpetrated by the same Franco-Belgian jihadist cell at the origin of the Paris attacks of November 13, 2015 (130 dead), it had been claimed by the Islamic State organization.
For Salah Abdeslam, a 31-year-old jihadist who is the only surviving member of the November 13 commandos, the future Brussels trial will be his second in Belgium.
He was sentenced in 2018 to 20 years in prison for shooting at Belgian police officers, three days before his arrest on March 18, 2016 in the Belgian capital.
In the March 22 case, Abdeslam, detained in France, is one of the main defendants along with Mohamed Abrini, "
the man in the hat
", who gave up blowing himself up at the airport, and Osama Krayem, who himself turned back after accompanying the suicide bomber to the metro.
None of the three was present at the procedural hearing relocated to the former NATO headquarters, a large, ultra-secure space which should also host the future assize trial.
This hearing, opened Monday, was the opportunity for lawyers to express a final opinion on the four years of investigation.
Some 70 new civil party constitutions were registered, bringing the total to 720, according to the federal prosecutor's office.
At the end of the debates, the council chamber announced Wednesday morning that it would issue its order on January 5 at 2 p.m.
The references to the assizes must then be validated during a final hearing before another specialized court.