Belgian Terrorist Faces 10-Year Sentence and Potential Loss of Citizenship

Heavy sentence requested against Belgian Akim Saouti and Frenchman Salah Ghemit. They will serve 10 years in prison, according to the verdict handed down by Prosecutor Fabienne Laduron before the Brussels Correctional Court. In addition to this sentence, the judge specifically requested the deprivation of Akim Saouti’s Belgian nationality, reports Sudinfo.be.

The searches on the night of July 4 to 5, 2017 indeed led to the arrest of the two men. Suspicions also weighed on Khalid Saouti in this case. But he has since been granted a dismissal. A third Saouti brother, Mohamed, was also suspected.

The latter had fled to Morocco from where he could not be extradited but tried, specifies the same source. According to the Prosecutor, the evidence was sufficient to convict the two defendants on the charges against them.

June 2017 will mark the beginning of the investigation into suspicions of preparing an attack. Belgian and French investigators were behind it. It emerges from the police observations that Salah Ghemit regularly went to Belgium.

On June 29, 2017, he was seen with the Saouti brothers in Anderlecht. Mohamed entered a garage box. On his way out, he had a large black bag in his hands that he had handed over to Salah Ghemit.

Subsequently, the Belgian and French police carried out searches on the night of July 4 to 5, 2017 at the Saouti’s home and at Salah Ghemit’s in Wattignies (Hauts-de-France) as well as in the said garage box.

The searches proved fruitful: assault rifles of the Kalashnikov and riot gun type, as well as detonators were discovered.