France and Belgium in Legal Battle Over Islamist Terrorist
13th February 2024
On Wednesday, February 7th, French Justice Minister Éric Dupont-Moretti announced the arrival on French soil of the terrorist Salah Abdeslam, who until then had been imprisoned in Belgium, to serve an “irreducible life imprisonment” (perpétuité incompressible)—a penalty that does not exist in Belgium. The Brussels Court of Appeal ruled that this sentence was inhumane and degrading, and the convicted man’s defence raised this as a question of “rule of law.”
Born in Belgium, Salah Abdeslam is a jihadist of French nationality and Moroccan origin who grew up in the Molenbeek district of Brussels—often described as a breeding ground for terrorists. Affiliated with the Islamic State, he played a decisive role in the attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, which cost the lives of 131 people.
After taking part in the attack on the Bataclan and the shootings targeting the Parisian terraces on the evening of 13 November 2015, he found refuge in Belgium, where he was arrested after several months on the run. He was also involved in the attacks in Brussels in March 2016, and since then has been alternately tried by the French and Belgian judicial authorities.
Last time I looked, there were a sufficiency of Muslim terrorists to go around.