Bakkali heading towards conditional release in Belgium: November 13 victims express outrage
Mohamed Bakkali, sentenced to 30 years for his role in the Paris attacks, is serving his sentence in Belgium. A hearing is scheduled for 29 September in Brussels to examine his conditional release.
Hearing on 29 September in Brussels for the logistician of the November 13 attacks
According to rtl.be, a hearing is scheduled for 29 September before the Brussels sentencing enforcement tribunal to examine conditional release requests from Mohamed Bakkali. Sentenced in June 2022 in Paris to 30 years' imprisonment for his role as logistician in the 13 November 2015 attacks, Bakkali is currently serving his sentence in Belgium — a situation that has provoked bewilderment and anger among French victims.
Criminal lawyer Guillaume Lys recalls that this return to Belgium was nothing unexpected. When Bakkali was arrested on Belgian territory, he had been handed over to France under a European arrest warrant with a return clause: "when he was arrested here in Belgium under a European arrest warrant, he was handed over to France with what is called a return clause". This mechanism, he emphasises, was known to all the authorities from the outset.
The perceived discrepancy between the sentence handed down in France and the arrangements for serving it in Belgium is explained, according to Lys, less by the terrorist nature of the case than by the lack of harmonisation between the penal systems of the two countries.
The lawyer, who himself represented civil parties during the trial of the Brussels attacks, says he understands the families' anger but invites them to distinguish between a request for conditional release and its approval: "requesting conditional release is not the same thing as obtaining it". He further clarifies that the procedure before the sentencing enforcement tribunal provides a means of expression for victims, including French ones.
Lys also details the stages that precede any potential conditional release: temporary release permits, penitentiary leave and electronic monitoring constitute as many steps before any actual release. He does, however, point to the limited resources available to the justice system to monitor compliance with conditions imposed once the sentence is adjusted: "The justice sector is currently under-funded (...) we know that there is also no individual electronic tagging".
Source: Google News BE FR