A terrorist sentenced in 2003 to 10 years in prison has been awarded compensation by the Belgian state following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. This was reported on Friday (13 May) by several newspapers that referred to a response given by the Justice Minister of Koen Geens to Member of Parliament Filip Dewinter (Flemish Vlaams Belang).
The United States requested in 2008 the extradition of Nizar Trabelsi, who was also suspected of planning an attack against the US embassy in Paris. He was extradited to the US in 2013. The European Court of Human Rights criticized Belgium for extraditing him to a country where sentence reduction is not possible.
Belgium was ordered to pay Trabelsi 90,000 euros in damages. After deduction for court costs and fines which had not been paid by him, he was awarded about 78 000 euro. The money was not sent to the United States but paid to his family in Belgium.
The Brussels Times (Source: Belga)
