Victims and relatives of victims gave testimony on Wednesday at the Brussels assize court in charge of trying 10 men – one of them in absentia – for the 22 March 2016 terror attacks in the Belgian capital.
Before the first testimony, lawyers for the civil parties were keen to discuss the previous day’s incident, during which defendant Ibrahim Farisi had – involuntarily – injured a victim on leaving the hearing.
Presiding judge Laurence Massart reassured the defence attorneys by informing them that a report had been drawn up by the Brussels public prosecutor’s office. The injured person, a victim from Maelbeek, had to spend the night in hospital, but his life was never in danger, said Me Venet.
As usual, Salah Abdeslam left the box to go back to his cell block. Smaïl and Ibrahim Farisi were also absent from the morning hearing, but Farisi eventually attended in the late afternoon.
'Even in our broken world, there is light'
The first civil party to give her testimony to the court was Janet Winston, a survivor, like her husband, of the bombs that hit Zaventem airport. She spoke at length about her day on 22 March and her need to be with the other victims “so that they could feel they were not alone.”
Mrs. Winston explained to the jury that she was haunted in the following days by the need to know how all the people she met on the day of the crime were doing. Referring to the impact on her health and that of her husband, she said her husband had undergone five operations since then and that they both had severe hearing problems, which made daily life very difficult.
Despite this, “I can say we’ve been able to move on. It’s like going through a French window, it leaves scars, but I’m moving forward and I’m grateful, especially because I know now that even in our broken world, there is light,” she concluded.
The court president then read a statement from the husband of a victim, Adema Tapia Ruiz. Christophe Delcambe lost his wife at the airport, but also saw his two daughters injured and traumatised there. His employer offered him the necessary psychological support. “I did not receive any help from the Belgian state,” he wrote in his statement.
'We have to make an effort ... to get on with life'
“The post-trauma treatment helped me to evacuate a lot of things,” Delcambe wrote, adding that the psychological after-effects will be with him and his daughters for life.
In the late morning, the parents of Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski testified about their loss of their only two children, aged 26 and 29. The sister and brother were described by their parents, and Alexander’s ex-wife in a statement, as lively, curious, intelligent and funny. Alexander was on the phone with his father at the time of the first blast. “Our conversation did not last long, at 7:58 and 25 seconds his voice disappeared,” his father, Edmond Pinczowski, said with dignity.
The couple paced the hospitals accompanied by photos of their children in the days after the attacks, but only learned the terrible truth on Friday 25 March. “Life has changed, we are no longer the two proud parents of two incredible children. We have to make an effort to get up in the morning and get on with life,” Marjan Fasbender told the court.
'I trust the legal process to deliver justice'
“We have bad days, better days. But we will never have fabulous days again. All we have left are the memories of those days that we took for granted," she added. "My husband and I share something that cannot be expressed in words. We look at each other and understand. We share the same pain, although we experience it differently. We have lost our children, the world has lost two beautiful people.”
Alexander’s ex-wife, Cameron, sent a statement to the court, asking that it be read by her former husband’s father. “I would have loved to come, but the birth of my daughter is making my journey difficult,” wrote the young woman, who recently became a mother.
“If I were not a mother now, I would be here. I would want to stare into the eyes of the men who murdered my family,” she wrote, explaining that what she wants now is “life in prison for these defendants."
"I trust the legal process to deliver justice,” she stressed.
The hearing was then briefly adjourned, after which it resumed at around 3.00 pm.
Caroline Leruth: No physical injuries but lifelong trauma
Then came Danielle Iwens, who was working at Zaventem airport on the day of the incident. She was caught up in the second bomb attack, as a result of which she has suffered severe psychological trauma. Iwens lost one of her colleagues and friends in that attack.
Pointing to other consequences of the attacks, she deplored above all the obligation to be in contact with the expert doctors appointed by the insurance companies “whose aim is always to minimise everything in order to award the lowest possible compensation.”
The testimonies continued with those of the parents of Bart Migom, who was 21 when he died before being able to fly to the US to join his girlfriend. They told the court of their desperate search for their son and called on the defendants to take responsibility.
“You are at a crossroads,” Bart’s mother told the accused. “You can choose to do as you have done so far or you can look at yourselves in the face and take responsibility for all of this, I hope you do.”
Caroline Leruth, who arrived in extremis from the United States, then concluded the list of speeches. Present at the airport, she was able to take crucial photographs of the events. Although she was not physically injured, the trauma she experienced would remain with her forever, she said.
Why did it take so long for help to arrive?
“Writing has been salutary,” she said in court, before addressing defendant Mohamed Abrini, who could have killed her if he had detonated the bomb. “I am standing here today because of your cowardice," she said.
She concluded her emotional testimony with an anger-tinged question: “Why did it take so long for help to arrive?”
After the reading of two brief statements by civil parties who did not wish to attend the trial, for health and personal reasons, the president gave the floor to the accused Ibrahim Farisi, who had requested it.
Farisi apologised for the previous day’s incident, and for his behaviour in general since the beginning of the trial.
The hearing was adjourned shortly before 7pm.
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