A Brussels court sentenced 13 Islamic State members Tuesday to between eight and 16 years in prison for planning attacks.
Members of the so-called “Verviers cell” operating outside Brussels have ties to both the Charlie Hebdo and Nov. 13 attacks in Paris in 2015. Nine of the men are still at large and were sentenced in their absence.
Police raided the cell days after the Charlie Hebdo attack. Belgian authorities believe the group’s ringleader was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the main suspect from the Nov. 13 attack. Abaaoud died during a raid in Paris days after the attack. (RELATED: Mastermind Behind Paris And Brussels Attacks Likely To Get Out By 50)
The length of the sentences are unprecedented by Belgian standards. A life sentence can only be given to people convicted of murder and it comes with the possibility of parole after 15 years.
“Clearly the attacks in Paris and Brussels made an impression on the judge,” Xavier Carrette, the attorney of one of the terrorists, said after the verdict. “I think they wanted to make an example of them. Using justice in this way is not a good form of justice and it is not this kind of justice that will improve things. Sixteen years is something we have never heard of before in Brussels.”
A landmark trial in 2015 sentenced 45 Belgian terrorists of the terror network “Sharia4Belgium” to time in prison ranging from three to 15 years. The founder and leader of the group, Fouad Belkacem, got 12 years for recruiting the other 44 fighters to Islamic State. (RELATED: Step Inside The One District In Brussels That’s Connected To Nearly Every Major Terror Attack On The West)
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