Paris attacks suspect gets 20-year sentence in Brussels trial

23 April 2018 - 13:03 By Reuters
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This file video image taken from a CCTV camera at a petrol station in Ressons, North of Paris, on November 11, 2015 shows Salah Abdeslam (R), a suspect in the Paris attack of November 13, and Mohamed Abrini (C) buying goods.
This file video image taken from a CCTV camera at a petrol station in Ressons, North of Paris, on November 11, 2015 shows Salah Abdeslam (R), a suspect in the Paris attack of November 13, and Mohamed Abrini (C) buying goods.
Image: AFP

A Belgian judge on Monday sentenced Salah Abdeslam, the prime surviving suspect in the 2015 Islamic State attacks on Paris, to 20 years in prison over a shootout with police in Brussels in 2016.

Abdeslam's co-defendant Sofien Ayari also received a 20-year term for attempted terrorist murder.

While his lawyer argued Abdeslam, 28, should be acquitted because of a procedural error, prosecutors had charged him with attempted murder over the Brussels shootout in March 2016, days before his arrest, and called for a jail term of 20 years.  

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