The Belgian authorities have said that the country wants to strip five dual nationals of their Belgian nationality for being involved in the attacks of March 22, 2016.
Through an official statement, the federal prosecutor’s office said that one of the people involved in the attacks, Mohamed Abrini, who is a Belgian-Moroccan citizen, will be sentenced to 15 years in prison in addition to being stripped of his Belgian nationality.
Commenting on this specific matter, prosecutor Bernard Michel said that despite Abrini having been sentenced in Paris, he should be sentenced in Belgium, too, and his sentence should not be reduced under this pretext.
“In the face of such odious facts, only life imprisonment can be described as proportionate. His sentence should not be reduced on the pretext that he was sentenced in Paris,” the statement of prosecutor Michel reads.
He further said Abrini has proved that he cannot be trusted, and for this reason, Belgium should strip him of his Belgian nationality.
“The link between Belgian society and Mohamed Abrini has been broken, and it is solely his fault. He betrayed his country,” prosecutor Michel added.
As for the other people involved in the attacks, the authorities revealed that two of them, Ali El Haddad Asufi and Bilal El Makhoukhi, are also Belgian Moroccans, and another one, Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa, is a Belgian-Rwandan.
They all will also be stripped of their Belgian nationality. In addition to being stripped of their Belgian nationality, the authorities have said that they also want to cut these people’s legal and administrative links with Belgium.
This means that as soon as the trial ends and a decision is taken, the people concerned will no longer be able to enter the territory of Belgium and will not have any social rights.
In addition to the above-mentioned, the federal prosecutor’s office has required that Oussama Atar, a Belgian-Moroccan who is presumed dead, is also sentenced to life imprisonment.
While there is no official data on the whereabouts of Atar, the Belgian authorities believe that he is alive and should be sentenced.
“There is no crime more serious than the one he committed in Brussels, moreover after the Paris attacks of November 13, 2015, of which he was also the mastermind,” prosecutor Paule Somers said.
Prosecutor Somers further said that there is no more suitable sanction for Atar and stressed that he himself decided to leave Belgium and carry out such serious crimes.
