'Man in the hat' Brussels 2016 bombing suspect minimises role in trial

One of the only surviving members of an ISIS-affiliated group that committed a series of suicide bomb attacks in Brussels in 2016 gave judges on Thursday further information about the minutes preceding the attacks while at the same time attempting to minimise his involvement.

Ten men are on trial since December for the suicide attacks, including one presumed dead in Syria, in a high-security courtroom in Nato’s former headquarters north of Brussels. Judges on Thursday focused their cross-examination on facts for the first time.

Defendant Mohamed Abrini, 39, gave a detailed account of the two suicide bombings at Zaventem international airport on March 22, 2016. They were followed by an attack on Maalbeek metro station, which killed 32 people and wounded hundreds. Abrini denies involvement in the preparation of the metro attack.

In a widely-circulated picture, Abrini is seen arriving at Zaventem airport posing as a passenger, wearing a hat and sunglasses and pushing a luggage cart with a suitcase alongside two other men. Until his arrest on April 8, Abrini was known as the “man in the hat.”

The two men with him were Najim Laachraoui, a 25-year-old Moroccan who had fought in Syria and Iraq alongside ISIS, and Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, a Belgian citizen of Moroccan heritage who was a known criminal before becoming an Islamist militant during a stint in prison in 2014.

'I'm not doing this'

Abrini, who first met Laachraoui in Syria in 2015, said that shortly before the attacks, he informed them that he wished to pull out. “I saw women and children,” he said. “I said I’m leaving, I’m not doing this.”

The three men had decided to sit down at a cafe for 5 to 10 minutes on arrival, judging there were not enough people yet in the check-in area, according to Abrini. Prosecutors allege they had intended to target passengers for flights to Russia, the US and Israel.

New details emerged from Abrini’s testimony, including the fact that El Bakraoui carried two bags, one on his back and a suitcase. “He had a pressure cooker in his backpack,” said Abrini. “So he had his 30kg bag plus 20kg on his back.” Prosecutors only mentioned one bag in their arraignment.

Abrini added that Laachraoui and El Bakraoui tried to convince him at the airport to go ahead with the attack, warning him that he would face years in prison anyway. When they realised Abrini would not change his mind, El Bakraoui walked over to passengers queuing to check-in for a flight to the US.

El Bakraoui then placed the suitcase vertically on the ground instead of horizontally so that it would have more impact, according to Abrini. He detonated the bombs at 7.58am and 12 seconds later Laachraoui, who was running through the airport’s main hallway at the time, followed suit.

Prosecutors allege that Abrini then fled back on foot to Brussels, throwing out his hat and jacket as he walked. As he left the airport he walked past an eight-year-old girl, alone, bloodied and shocked. He was on the run until his arrest two weeks later.

Abrini said that he believed in ISIS’s right to fight on the battlefield but not to attack civilians, and that all he had wanted in the months preceding the Brussels attacks was to return to Syria. “There was no airport left to go to Syria,” noted presiding judge Laurence Massart.

Abrini said he did not attempt to convince Laachraoui or El Bakraoui to cancel the attack despite having already decided that he would not join them as they headed to the airport in a taxi.

The only arguments they would listen to were religious, he said, and he described his knowledge of Islam at the time as “close to zero.”

When asked why he wore a hat while the other men did not attempt to conceal their faces, Abrini was evasive and did not confirm that he was wearing sunglasses.

Asked whether the others suspected him of hiding his face because he planned to survive the attacks, Abrini answered: “no one cared about those details.”

As he did on Wednesday, Abrini challenged Judge Massart’s authority to judge the case, claiming she would inevitably bow to pressure from politicians and public opinion.

“I cannot be removed from my post,” she answered. “There is no pressure on my career.”

Contradictions

Abrini attempted to minimise his involvement in the attacks’ preparations. He repeatedly claimed that he had no knowledge of the metro bombing which occurred a little less than two hours after the Zaventem attacks.

He argued that a surveillance video of suicide bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui, who was Khalid’s brother, shows that El Bakraoui did not intentionally detonate the bomb at that moment.

“I don’t think he pressed the button right after he got on the train,” said Abrini. “You can see him repeatedly readjusting and shaking his bag.”

He suggested that the bomb was detonated by the bag’s movement instead of El Bakraoui pressing a button.

El Bakraoui would have “exploded himself” anyway, said Abrini, just not at that precise moment.

Judges’ questions to Abrini also revealed contradictions with some of his past statements made to police. He was unable to explain why he said in 2018 that he wanted to follow Laachraoui “until death.” “Honestly, I don’t remember,” he told the judge.

He also failed to explain why, in 2018, he said that he had been informed the day before the attack that both Zaventem and Maalbeek would be targeted. “I have no idea,” he answered.

Defendants have previously said that Belgium was not their original target.

They claim to have wanted to attack France a second time after the November 2015 terror attacks. But they changed plans after the arrest of defendants Salah Abdeslam and Sofien Ayari on March 15, 2016, after a shoot-out in Brussels.

Both Abdeslam and Ayari have argued that they could not have taken part in planning the Brussels attack because they were detained, but prosecutors allege they were heavily involved.

Abrini said that they initially aimed to hit France during the UEFA Euro 2016 championships, a statement he had already made to police as early as August 2016. “We were overtaken by events,” he said.

Abrini and Abdeslam are childhood friends. Both men were sentenced in June over their role in the Paris attacks, Abrini to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years and Abdeslam to life imprisonment without parole.

A psychological evaluation conducted in December 2016 found that Abrini had “a long history of conduct disorder and a sociopath behaviour.”

Abdeslam refused to undergo a similar evaluation in Belgium but accepted one in France. Experts found in December 2021 that he was confined to “a totalitarian system which deprives him of all autonomy of thought but protects him.”

One Swedish defendant, Osama Krayem, has refused to attend cross-examinations. Other defendants are Ali El Haddad Asufi, Bilal El Makhoukhi and Herve Bayingana Muhirwa.

Brothers Smail and Ibrahim Farisi are the only ones that are not currently detained.

Cross-examinations will continue over the next two weeks. A verdict is not expected until September.