Mohamed Abrini ( ar, محمد أبريني, born 27 December 1984) is a Belgian

Islamic terrorist Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism) refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists. Incidents and fatalities ...

. On 29 June 2022 he was convicted of involvement in the November 2015 Paris attacks and received a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years. He was due to go on trial for his role in the

2016 Brussels bombings On 22 March 2016, two coordinated terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium were carried out by the Islamic State. Three coordinated suicide bombings occurred: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station on the Brussels ...

in October 2022; the start of the trial was delayed until December 2022.

Personal background

Abrini was born to Moroccan parents in Berchem, Brussels, and grew up in the neighbouring district of

Molenbeek ( French, ) or (Dutch, ), often simply called Molenbeek, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, from which it is separated ...

, where he was a childhood friend of future terrorist

Salah Abdeslam Salah Abdeslam ( ar, صلاح عبد السلام, lit=Ṣalāḥ ʿAbd as-Salām; ; born 15 September 1989) is a French Islamic terrorist who was sentenced to life in prison in 2022 as the sole surviving member of the 10-man unit that carried o ...

. He was convicted of theft aged seventeen and went on to acquire a long criminal record and several prison sentences. It was while he was in prison in 2014 that he learnt of the death of his younger brother who was fighting in Syria.

Involvement in the November 2015 Paris attacks

In June 2015 Abrini went to Syria to visit his brother's grave and met up with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, another childhood friend from Molenbeek. Abaaoud asked him to go to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

to collect £3000, most of which came from housing benefit payments to a Syrian fighter. Abrini took part in preparations for the Paris attacks and, on 12 November 2015, set off for Paris in a convoy with the other ten terrorists. During the night he took a taxi back to Brussels, where he went into hiding. Two days later he was identified as a suspect when CCTV footage emerged of him with Abdeslam at a service station on 11 November 2015.

Brussels bombings and arrest

While he was in hiding in Brussels, Abrini took part in preparations for the Brussels bombings. On 22 March 2016 he went to Brussels Airport in

Zaventem Zaventem () is a Belgian municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant. It is located in the Dijleland area, one of the three large recreational areas which together form the '' Groene Gordel'' ("Green Belt") around the Brussels-Capital Region ...

with two other suicide bombers,

Najim Laachraoui Najm al-'Ashrāwī ( ar, نجم العشراوي, 18 May 1991 – 22 March 2016), also known as Abū Idrīs al-Baljīkī or Soufiane Kayal, was a Belgian-Moroccan Islamic militant loyal to the Islamic State and was one of two suicide bomber ...

and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, but fled without detonating his suitcase of explosives. He was arrested on 8 April 2016 in the Brussels district of Anderlecht and admitted to being the "man in a hat" who had been captured on CCTV at the airport alongside the suicide bombers.

Paris trial

On 8 September 2021, Abrini, along with Abdeslam and 18 others, went on trial at the Palais de Justice in Paris. The trial lasted over nine months, with verdicts announced on 29 June 2022. The prosecution asked for a life sentence with a minimum term of 22 years; Abrini's lawyers, Marie Violleau and Stanislas Eskenazi, argued for a sentence of 30 years, acknowledging Abrini's complicity in the attacks but emphasizing the fact that he had renounced his role as a suicide bomber the night before. The court found him guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years.

Brussels trial

Abrini was due to stand trial for his role in the Brussels bombings in October 2022 but the start of the trial was delayed when lawyers objected to the individual glass cubicles that had been provided for the defendants. The cubicles were replaced by a glass box in the specially built courtroom in the former

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

headquarters.

References