BRUSSELS: A Belgian court jailed dozens of people Tuesday in one of the country’s biggest ever drug trials, with the ringleaders sentenced to up to 17 years behind bars.
More than 120 defendants from Belgium, Albania, Colombia and North Africa were accused of having participated in a multinational cocaine and cannabis trafficking enterprise after investigators cracked encrypted messaging apps.
The case shone a spotlight on Belgium’s role as Europe’s gateway for drugs.
About two dozen defendants were led in handcuffs into a courtroom in the former headquarters of military alliance NATO in Brussels.
They sat in the dock faced by a line of police officers as judges read out the long list of verdicts. Other accused who had been bailed pending the trial, sat in court to await their fate.
Among the first group to be sentenced was Algerian Abdelwahab Guerni, one of the alleged ringleaders, who was jailed for 17 years.
Albanian citizen Eridan Munoz Guerrero, another suspected leader, received a 14-year term.
Accused of running several cocaine laboratories in Belgium, Munoz Guerrero had admitted his guilt at the start of the trial telling the court: “Your honor, I played, I lost.”
The trafficking ring — active from 2017 to late 2022 — involved numerous criminal gangs and was dismantled following raids by police in Belgium, Germany and Italy.
Prosecutors had asked for jail terms of up to 20 years for some of the accused.
They said drugs were transported in containers from South America and Morocco and smuggled through ports in Belgium, notably the giant port of Antwerp, as well as the Netherlands, Germany and France before being sold across Europe.
The case was in part based on evidence uncovered after investigators cracked the covert Sky ECC and EncroChat apps, which the gangs used to communicate.
By breaking into the messaging tools, police said they were able to peer into the unguarded planning and carrying out of drug smuggling operations.
Belgian authorities have portrayed the trial as the latest blow delivered to drug smuggling gangs.
But some defense lawyers decried it as a “publicity stunt” accusing prosecutors of having bundled together disconnected cases into one eye-catching trial.
“People were artificially linked to each other when they had no connection,” Guerni’s lawyer Gilles Vanderbeck said before the verdicts were pronounced.
Prosecutors insist there was a “structure and hierarchy” between the various criminal groups involved and clear illegal commercial links.
Some suspects were acquitted, while dozens of others received prison terms ranging from a few months to more than 10 years.
The judgment was initially expected on September 2 but was postponed after an objection by one of the defendants.
Dozens jailed in Belgium drug smuggling mega-trial
https://arab.news/ch62m
Dozens jailed in Belgium drug smuggling mega-trial
- More than 120 defendants accused of having participated in a multinational trafficking enterprise after investigators cracked encrypted messaging apps
- Among the first group to be sentenced was Algerian Abdelwahab Guerni, one of the alleged ringleaders, who was jailed for 17 years
Greta Thunberg released from custody after arrest at UK pro-Palestinian protest
- UK-based campaign group Prisoners for Palestine said Thunberg was earlier arrested under the Terrorism Act
- City of London Police said Thunberg had been bailed until March
LONDON: Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was released from custody after being arrested on Tuesday in London at a pro-Palestinian protest, police said.
UK-based campaign group Prisoners for Palestine said Thunberg was earlier arrested under the Terrorism Act for holding a sign that said “I support the Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide.” The British government has proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist group.
City of London Police said Thunberg had been bailed until March.
Police said earlier two other people had been arrested for throwing red paint at a building. A spokesperson said 22-year-old woman later attended the scene and was arrested for displaying a placard in support of a proscribed organization.
Prisoners for Palestine, which supports some detained activists who have gone on hunger strike, said the building had been targeted because it was used by an insurance firm which they said provided services to the British arm of Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems.
The insurance company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thunberg, 22, became prominent after staging weekly climate protests in front of the Swedish parliament in 2018.
Last year, she was cleared of a public order offense in Britain as a judge ruled police had no power to arrest her and others at a protest in London the year before.
She was detained along with 478 people and expelled by Israel in October after joining an activist convoy of vessels, the Global Sumud Flotilla, that attempted to reach Gaza with aid supplies. Israel has consistently denied genocide allegations.
