Europe 1 with AFP 4:52 p.m., May 2, 2022

Up to three years in prison were required Monday against five defendants, in the trial in Belgium of 14 people suspected of having helped the perpetrators of the attacks of November 13, 2015 in France.

Federal prosecutor Véronique Melot had already asked Friday at the start of her indictment for sentences ranging from one to five years in prison, suspended for some, against the first nine defendants.

Accommodation, loan of a car, provision of false papers: up to three years in prison were required Monday against five defendants, in the trial in Belgium of 14 people suspected of having helped the perpetrators of the attacks of November 13, 2015 in France.

Federal prosecutor Véronique Melot had already asked Friday at the start of her indictment for sentences ranging from one to five years in prison, suspended for some, against the first nine defendants.

They have been on trial since April 19 before the Brussels Criminal Court – by default for two of them, presumed dead in Syria.

"Participation in the activity of a terrorist group"

The trial is being held in parallel with that of Paris, and concerns suspects excluded from the French judicial procedure.

On Monday, the prosecutor requested three years in prison against Abdoullah Courkzine, suspected of having "contributed" so that Abdelhamid Abaaoud "can hide" after the attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis (130 dead), claimed by the group Islamic State (IS).

Judged for "participation in an activity of a terrorist group", like most of the defendants, Courkzine was in contact with Hasna Aït Boulahcen, cousin of Abaaoud, who finally found the hideout in Saint-Denis, explained the magistrate.

She stressed that the defendant was "acquired in the theses of IS" at the time of the facts and "continues to be fascinated", adding that he had been under an arrest warrant since March 2022 in the context of an attempted attack in Morocco.

Another defendant, Youssef El Ajmi, is accused of having helped Ibrahim El Bakraoui - suspected of being one of the chief logisticians of November 13 and who blew himself up during the attacks in Brussels in 2016 - in his attempts to reach Syria, "knowingly", and to have rented a car for him shortly before the attacks of November 13.

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Judgment by June 30 at the latest

A two-year prison sentence was requested against him by the prosecutor, specifying that a probationary reprieve was possible.

She asked for two years suspended probation for Smaïl Farisi, who is accused of having lent his Brussels apartment from October 2015 to Ibrahim El Bakraoui.

He is the only defendant who must also be tried at the assizes in Brussels from the fall of 2022 for the attacks committed in the Belgian capital on March 22, 2016 (32 dead) by the same cell, and also claimed by the IS.

Smaïl Farisi is one of the ten defendants in the March 22 file.

The trial is scheduled until May 20.

Judgment is expected by June 30 at the latest.