World

Six guilty of murder over 2016 Brussels airport and train attack that killed 32

Published

2 years ago

July 25, 2023

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Six men have been found guilty of murder over the 2016 Brussels terror attacks that left 32 people dead.

The trial lasted seven months and was held in the former headquarters of NATO.

Bombs exploded at Brussels Airport in March 2016 and then on a metro train passing through the city’s European quarter, in attacks claimed by Islamic State.

Fifteen men and 17 women were killed, with more than 300 people injured. The attacks were the deadliest in Belgium since the end of the Second World War.

Among those convicted were Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the Paris attacks in 2015, which killed 130 people.

Abdeslam, who was born and brought up in Brussels, has already been convicted, at a trial in France, for his part in those attacks.

The French sentenced him to life imprisonment, without parole, but allowed Abdeslam, along with four others, to be transported to Belgium so they could face justice once more.

One of the group is presumed to have been killed in Syria and was tried in their absence.

Nearly 1,000 people were represented during the hearings, underscoring how many lives were impacted by the attacks – but now the country has some form of closure.

The immediate aftermath led to vigils, protests, border checks, parliamentary inquiries and even the partial evacuation of the nation’s nuclear power stations.

Belgium was a country gripped by a fear that took a long time to quell. Now, it knows where to place the blame.

‘The man in the hat’

Also found guilty was Mohamed Abrini, who became known as “the man in the hat” after being seen in a CCTV image taken at Brussels Airport shortly before bombs were blown up.

Abdeslam was arrested during a police raid and shoot-out in Brussels in March 2016.

The arrest prompted the terrorist group to change its plans – instead of returning to Paris to launch a new wave of terror attacks, as planned, they rushed into place to cause devastation in the Belgian capital.

The murders began at the airport.

CCTV footage shows three men pushing trolleys through the departure terminal shortly before the explosions. In all of their bags there was a bomb, but only two of them were detonated by suicide attackers.

The third man was Abrini. A friend of Abdeslam since childhood, he survived the attack after failing to detonate his device.

He, too, had previously been convicted by the court in France for his involvement in the November 2015 attacks.

Abrini told the Brussels court that “just like in Paris, they’ll convict us for what others did” and said that he, and the other defendants, “are not the tip of the pyramid”.

He added: “You never caught those pulling the strings but you have to trot out someone and that someone is us.”

‘Bomber pulled out when he saw women and kids’

Abrini also claimed that he had suffered a change of heart and refused to blow up his bomb after being shown his target – a queue of passengers preparing to fly to America.

“I saw women and children. I turned around immediately and told them ‘I’m not doing that’,” he claimed.

The court asked him why, if he had suffered a sudden pang of conscience, he did not try to dissuade the other bombers or defuse the devices, but received no clear answer.

Instead, Abrini maintained that those killed and injured in the attack were, in fact, victims of both Islamic State and the foreign policy of Western nations.

The airport was evacuated amid scenes of chaos and fear. But just an hour and a quarter after the airport explosions, another device was detonated in the middle carriage of a train at Maalbeek metro station, not far from the headquarters of the European Commission.

As well as the 32 people who were killed by the attacks, three terrorists also died.

More than 300 people were injured, 62 of them critically.

Woman euthanised over attack trauma

In 2022, a young Belgian woman, who had been in the airport at the time of the attack, decided to be euthanised because of the “intolerable psychological” strain it had placed on her life.

The trial in Belgium had been delayed because of questions about where such a high-profile, maximum-security event could be held.

In the end, millions of euros were spent converting NATO’s former headquarters building into a courtroom.

Police protection was high and overt.

Abdeslam, who denied any involvement in planning the attacks, told the court that he had “always tried to do good”.

When asked if he had any faults, he said: “I don’t know of any.”

He said that Islamic State attacks on Europe had been a response to bombing raids carried out by Western nations on Raqqa and Mosul, a claim repeated by a succession of defendants.

Complaints from defendants of humiliating strip searches caused more delays, with court sessions frequently interrupted and postponed.

‘You are at a crossroads’

The court heard moving testimony from many people profoundly affected by the attacks.

The mother of Bart Migom, a 21-year-old who was on his way to America to see his girlfriend, told the defendants: “You are at a crossroads. You can choose to do as you have done so far, or you can look yourselves in the face and take responsibility for all of this. I hope you do that.”

Another person, Caroline Leruth, told the court she had survived only because Abrini had not detonated his bomb. “I am standing here today because of your cowardice,” she said.

However, the statements from victims also included criticism of the response from Belgian authorities, alleging that help had taken too long to arrive and that they had been treated unsympathetically after the attacks, with health insurance companies trying to minimise their injuries.

Nine people were placed on trial, although the prosecution, in an unusual move, later asked for one of the men, Ibrahim Farisi, to be acquitted after accepting that there was not enough evidence against him.

A tenth, Oussama Atar, was convicted in his absence, although it is believed that he is dead after previously going to Syria to join Islamic State.

World

Donald Trump ‘very, very committed’ to ending Gaza war, says Saudi foreign minister

Published

1 hour ago

September 26, 2025

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Donald Trump 'very, very committed' to ending Gaza war, says Saudi foreign minister

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has told Sky News he believes Donald Trump is “very, very committed” to ending the war in Gaza.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud said a recent meeting between the US president and Arab leaders went “very well” and that he was hopeful that a peace deal could soon be agreed.

He told The World with Yalda Hakim: “The war has gone on for far too long, too many people have died. Too much suffering has occurred [and] we have a famine going on in Gaza right now.

“And I got the sense from the meeting that President Trump is very, very committed to finding a path to ending the war, bringing the hostages out, bringing the relief to the people of Gaza.

“So I’m actually hopeful that we’ve started the dialogue that’s going to get us towards achieving this ceasefire.”

His comments come amid heightened international pressure on Israel after a commission established by the United Nations recently found its military was committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel, which launched its offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’s deadly 7 October attacks in 2023, said it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report”.

Alongside the UN Commission report, multiple Western countries, including the UK, have also decided to formally recognise Palestine as a state.

That has prompted some Israeli ministers to call for the annexation of the West Bank to push back against efforts towards a two-state solution to the conflict.

But speaking to Sky News, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said he felt “reassured that the [US] president understands how dangerous the idea of annexation in the West Bank is, how strongly the Arab and Muslim countries feel about the need to find an end to the war.”

After the Sky News interview was recorded, Mr Trump appeared to confirm such a stance later on Thursday, telling reporters at the White House: “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank… It’s not gonna’ happen… There’s been enough.”

Meanwhile, the Saudi foreign minister told Sky News that formal recognition of Palestine by so many nations demonstrated that “real hope partially exists in the renewed commitment by the international community to the two-state solution to a Palestinian state”.

He said: “Because that’s a strong signal to everyone, but most particularly to the Palestinian people, that there is actually a hope for them to live in peace and harmony side by side with Israel.”

World

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to five years in prison

Published

16 hours ago

September 25, 2025

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Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to five years in prison

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison.

The former president, 70, was found guilty of criminal conspiracy, but was cleared of all other charges in the trial over the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the government of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi.

The court in Paris found him guilty of criminal conspiracy, but not guilty of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, and concealing the embezzlement of public funds.

In a surprise move, the judge said he would be jailed regardless of whether he appeals the verdict, which usually suspends sentencing. He was not sent straight to jail, however, with the start date of his sentence yet to be decided.

Sarkozy denied the charges during the three-month court case, which he claimed was politically motivated.

He was accompanied to Thursday’s hearing by his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and his three sons.

Overall, the verdict suggested the former president and his co-defendants had conspired to seek Libyan campaign funding – but not that he was directly involved or that money was actually used.

The judge said Sarkozy had allowed his associates to reach out to Libyan authorities “to obtain or try to obtain financial support in Libya for the purpose of securing campaign financing”.

Earlier this year, Sarkozy was stripped of his Legion of Honour medal, France‘s highest accolade.

In 2021, he was found guilty of trying to bribe a magistrate for information about a legal case in which he was implicated in 2014. Two years later, he was sentenced to a year on electronic tag, of which six months were suspended. After three months, it was ruled he could remove the monitoring device due to his age.

In another case last year, he was convicted of illegal campaign financing during his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid, having spent almost twice the allowed amount. He was sentenced to a year in prison, with six months suspended.

He has appealed the sentence and is awaiting the outcome from France’s highest court – the Court of Cassation.

Despite his criminal record, Sarkozy has remained an influential figure within the French Right.

Light shed on French-Libyan relations during Gaddafi’s rule

During the Gaddafi finance trial, he described the case against him as a “plot” staged by the “Gaddafi clan” and other “liars and crooks”.

He claimed it was revenge for his decision to call for Gaddafi to be removed from office.

The allegations stretch back to 2011 when a Libyan news agency reported that Gaddafi had said Libya had secretly sent millions of euros to Sarkozy’s election campaign.

A year later, French investigative outlet Mediapart published what it claimed to be a piece of Libyan intelligence referencing a £43.7m funding agreement, which Sarkozy rubbished and saw him sue for defamation.

The court ruled on Thursday that it “now appears most likely that this document was a forgery”.

In the current case, Sarkozy had 11 co-defendants, including three former ministers.

Two of them, Claude Gueant and Brice Hortefeux, both among his closest confidantes during his presidency, were also found guilty of criminal association but not guilty on other charges.

The trial shed light on France’s relationship with Libya during the 2000s, when Gaddafi, who was toppled and killed in 2011, was trying to restore diplomatic ties with Western countries.

It also saw investigators scrutinise several trips to Libya made by people in Sarkozy’s inner circle while he was still interior minister between 2005 and 2007 – including his chief-of-staff.

In a key development in 2016, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told Mediapart he had delivered suitcases full of cash from Tripoli to the French interior ministry while Sarkozy was in charge – but later retracted the claims.

Mr Takieddine, who was one of the co-defendants, died aged 75 on Tuesday in Beirut, according to his lawyer Elise Arfi said. He fled to Lebanon in 2020 and did not attend the trial.

His change-of-heart is now subject to a separate investigation into alleged witness interference – but it has not yet gone to trial.

World

The men facing torture and death to smuggle food into famine-ridden Sudan city

Published

19 hours ago

September 25, 2025

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The men facing torture and death to smuggle food into famine-ridden Sudan city

Inside a dimly-lit storeroom in Tine’s central market, near the border of North Darfur and Chad, we are shown a haunting video.

Young men crouched on the ground and covered in sand stare up at a phone camera helplessly.

A loud male voice interrogates them and demands to know what they are smuggling into Al Fashir, the regional capital besieged by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

One responds with “rice” and another says “pasta”.

“I will swat all of you like flies,” the man says from behind the camera, before pointing his gun at each of their heads and feigning lethal headshots in a mock execution.

We are shown the clip by Ahmed* and Hassan*, who are using pseudonyms for their protection.

The young men in the video are just one of the many teams they coordinate to smuggle food and lifesaving supplies into Sudan‘s Al Fashir, where around 900,000 people are being forced into famine by an RSF blockade while being bombarded by deadly drone strikes and shelling.

The dangers of this work are extreme as smuggling routes rapidly open and close, and battles for control rage inside the city.

Some of the teams they send make it to Al Fashir, but many do not. The three men in the video are still missing and are feared dead.

“The situation in Al Fashir is catastrophic – you cannot afford to watch and do nothing,” says Ahmed in front of a stack of flour sacks piled up to the ceiling.

“We have no option but to offer what we can for people to eat and survive the shelling.”

As we drive to the storeroom, their phones constantly ping with messages, voice notes and phone calls.

As Ahmed fires back a voice note requesting costings on bulk food items, Hassan brings his phone to his ear and listens.

He sighs with frustration and says: “We just received a message from HQ that one of our guys smuggling in insulin hasn’t arrived and was likely killed.

“He has been missing for three days. We have to count him among the dead.”

Hassan tells us they are being targeted by the RSF, adamant to uphold their siege.

“It happens a lot. Three days ago, we had a group of 12 people break up into three teams of four. Two of the teams arrived, but one group never surfaced.”

The number of dead is mounting and uncountable. They tell us they have lost 30 volunteers in the first week of September alone.

Their network of fearless first responders was born out of the resistance committees created to organise and assist targeted protesters during Sudan’s 2019 revolution.

Now, they carry the burden of feeding and treating war-impacted civilians across the country through the Nobel Peace Prize nominated Emergency Response Rooms.

The battle for Al Fashir – and Sudan

Al Fashir is being suffocated to death by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as they push to claim full control of the Darfur region as a base for their parallel government, after the military recaptured the capital Khartoum and other key sites in central Sudan.

Close to a million people are facing famine in Al Fashir and surrounding camps as the RSF enforces a full blockade, launching armed attacks on volunteers and aid workers risking their lives to bring in food.

Inside the city, thousands are bombarded by almost daily shelling from surrounding RSF troops.

The RSF have physically reinforced their siege with a berm – a raised earth mound. First spotted by Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, the berm is visible from space.

The Sudan war started in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and the RSF broke out in Khartoum.

The US special envoy to Sudan estimates that 150,000 have been killed, but the exact figure is unknown. Close to 12 million people have been displaced.

Several mediation attempts have failed to secure a humanitarian access mechanism or any lulls in fighting.

The RSF are not just targeting these civilian volunteers but also aid convoys attempting to deliver food.

On 3 June, a World Food Programme (WFP)-UNICEF aid convoy approaching Al Fashir was attacked, with five convoy personnel being killed and several food trucks destroyed.

Last month, another WFP convoy approaching an RSF-held town, Mellit, was attacked, and three trucks were set on fire.

Near a makeshift displacement shelter in Tine, 24 WFP trucks full of food are parked at a transshipment point under the sun.

The trucks will set off to towns in North Darfur that are controlled by the RSF: Mellit, Kutum and Korma.

Korma is only 43 miles from Al Fashir, but aid trucks will not brave facing the RSF by approaching the besieged capital.

WFP Sudan’s country director Laurent Bukera says: “For months, the UN has been trying to secure guarantees for a humanitarian pause allowing safe delivery to the city.

“We received clearances from the government of Sudan’s humanitarian aid commission to deliver aid into Al Fashir and are renewing these, but the RSF has yet to communicate support for a humanitarian pause.”

Volunteers call for aid airdrops

Hassan, Ahmed and other volunteers we met are calling for food air drops, similar to those in Gaza and South Sudan.

“We need safe humanitarian passage for the delivery of aid – by road or by air drop,” says Hassan. “That is the responsibility of the international community as a neutral entity that can navigate the belligerents.”

But navigating these belligerents has proven difficult for mediators and the United Nations.

Since the start of the war in April 2023, there has not been a single humanitarian pause or ceasefire that would allow for the guaranteed safe passage of aid.

“We are exploring every option to get aid into Al Fashir,” says Mr Bukera. “Airdrops are up to 10 times more expensive and extremely risky due to high risk of drone strikes, anti-aircraft weapons and shelling in and around Al Fashir.

“Also with the absence of humanitarian pause, to date, no aircraft and pilot have been willing to take the risk.”

Until a safe corridor for aid is established, Al Fashir’s young volunteers will continue to face death to get food to their besieged and bombarded relatives in friends inside the city.

“If we don’t do it – it’ll be a slow genocide. So, better to die trying,” says Hassan.

“We have no other option but to take these risks.”