At the trial for the November 13 attacks, the prosecution described him as the "centerpiece" of the Franco-Belgian terrorist cell whose attacks had left Paris and Saint-Denis in mourning in 2015. Mohamed Bakkali was sentenced to thirty years' imprisonment by French justice in 2022 for the killings at the Bataclan, the terraces and the Stade de France, which left 132 dead. But he could soon be released by the Belgian justice system. The 39-year-old Belgian-Moroccan, who was also sentenced in 2020 to twenty-five years of imprisonment for the thwarted Thalys attack in August 2015, is incarcerated in Ittre prison, around thirty kilometers from Brussels.
The possible release of one of the key men in the November 13 attacks – he is often presented as the “logistician” of the terrorist cell – will be studied on September 29, during a hearing before the Ittre sentence enforcement court, his French lawyer, Orly Rezlan, told franceinfo. Incomprehension and anger dominate within victims' associations. So much so that an information meeting was organized by the Brussels justice system, Wednesday September 16 at 6 p.m. at the Belgian consulate in Paris, in order to hear their grievances.
“We are aware that the procedure for executing sentences is complex and can raise many questions,” this Belgian administrative entity, whose mission is notably to inform and support civil parties during legal proceedings, wrote to them in an email in August. The participants will be able to issue “a whole series of conditions” for the possible release of the jihadist, Lamiya Amrani, deputy director at the Brussels House of Justice, who is organizing this meeting, assured franceinfo. Victims will be able “for example to request a geographical exclusion zone”, she specifies. Not sure that this will be enough to calm the anger of the victims.
The security period not applicable for events prior to 2017
How is it possible, they ask, that this “omnipresent logisticsian” and “superintendent of terror”, in the words of the national anti-terrorism prosecution (Pnat), can be released so quickly? Let us first recall that Mohamed Bakkali has been incarcerated since his arrest on November 26, 2015, as part of the Belgian investigation into the attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis. The Paris Special Assize Court sentenced him to two sentences, twenty-five and thirty years in prison. Under French law, the sentences do not add up (unlike in the United States for example), the thirty-year-old benefited from the confusion of his two convictions, which were reduced to a total of thirty years. The principle being that the shortest sentence is included in the longest.
However, his longest sentence was accompanied by a two-thirds security period. If Mohamed Bakkali had served it in France, he would therefore not have been released until 2035, at best. But his extradition by Belgian justice, within the framework of the European arrest warrant issued by the French authorities, had, from the start, been accompanied by a return clause. “This clause is not automatic: it must be requested before the execution of the arrest warrant by Belgium and has been obtained by several defendants, including Mohamed Bakkali,” explains Julien d’Andurain, former lawyer for the Life for Paris association (since dissolved).
Arriving in France on January 26, 2018 for his two trials, Mohamed Bakkali was therefore returned to Belgium on January 20, 2023. His security period then immediately disappeared, since this concept, introduced into Belgian law in 2017, did not exist at the time of the events that occurred two years previously, and for which the Belgian-Moroccan was convicted. He can therefore, like any prisoner, make a request for conditional release after a third of his sentence.
The defense insists on his “exemplary behavior” in detention
This level having been reached, the terrorist, originally from Verviers, was able to request several exit permits. These were granted to him by the Brussels sentence enforcement court. Mohamed Bakkali thus “recently benefited from six prison leaves of thirty-six hours each”, specifies the public prosecutor of the Belgian capital to franceinfo. The granting of this leave contributes "to a legal evolution of the path of the person concerned in the preparation of his reintegration" and this "taking into account all the procedures and work already carried out in prison", underlines the court.
His French lawyer, Orly Rezlan, insists on his client's "exemplary behavior" throughout his detention on both sides of the border. “He was in complete solitary confinement for six years in France, he never had a blood attack,” she argues, recalling that Mohamed Bakkali took a degree in sociology behind bars. The one who exercised his right to silence during the trial of the November 13 attacks also, according to his counsel, “obtained a diploma in nutrition”.
“Mr Bakkali has three children who come to see him, they are real reassuring factors for his reintegration.”
Orly Rezlan, his lawyer
at franceinfo
“He does everything to try to remain functional to be able to adapt to life outside,” continues Orly Rezlan, who swears that “the prison management supports him” in his request for release. This is not the opinion of the Brussels public prosecutor's office, which said on Wednesday that it was "opposed to any measure of conditional release or electronic surveillance at this stage" concerning him. The opinion of the public prosecutor is however "non-binding", he reminds franceinfo, stressing that "in the event of conditional release, the prosecution will not be able to appeal".
A “totally predictable” release
Since May, and the publication of several press articles on the subject, many victims and families of victims of the November 13 attacks knew that the release of Mohamed Bakkali appeared more and more likely. “It’s terrible, because in reality, it was totally predictable from the end of the trial but the French justice system did not inform us at all,” says Dominique Kielemoës, president of the 13onze15 association.
This councilor at Paris town hall, who lost her son Victor, 24, mowed down on the Belle Equipe terrace, recalls that the terrorists of November 13 were judged during a ten-month trial and considers that the non-application of the security sentence received by Mohamed Bakkali constitutes "an affront to French justice". She sent an email at the end of May to express her concern to the national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office, which Franceinfo was able to consult, and regrets not having obtained a response. Contacted by franceinfo, the Pnat said it shared the victims' "emotion", "but in no way calls into question the quality of anti-terrorism judicial cooperation with Belgium, which was essential in 2015 and remains so today".
A meeting perceived as “a media mine-clearing operation”
“The challenge is to fight against international terrorism. If terrorists can benefit from small inequalities between countries, judicial Europe is not up to the task at all,” annoys Arthur Dénouveaux, former president of the Life for Paris association. The survivor of the Bataclan attack will not attend the meeting organized by Belgium on Wednesday evening, seeing it as "a media clearance operation".
More temperate, Dominique Kielemoës decided to be present, alongside several members of her association. She says she is concerned at the idea that Mohamed Bakkali, but also Mohamed Abrini, Yassine Atar and Ali El Haddad Asufi, who are also serving their sentences in Belgium, "could put one foot back on French soil". All have been formally banned since their conviction. “But this seems very illusory to us: the Franco-Belgian border is a sieve,” she worries.
"How are they going to be monitored? How do we know that they are not going to engage in terrorist activities again? They were very anchored in Molenbeek, in a process of annihilating the French population... How do we measure deradicalization?" asks Nadine Ribet, one of the members of the 13onze15 association, who lost her eldest son, Valentin, aged 26, during the attack at Bataclan. Belgian justice will have to answer many questions from victims. Not sure, however, that it can respond to their multiple anxieties.
