Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Monday's hearing in a Brussels court is devoted to the heads of Belgium's state security and the BIM commission, which oversees special intelligence methods, in the trial related to the March 22, 2016 attacks on Brussels airport and the Malbec metro station in central Brussels. It killed 32 people and injured more than 300 people

Their testimonies were initially scheduled for the end of February, immediately after the investigation into the attacks was presented by investigative judges and investigators. However, this presentation was cancelled, and a new date was sought.

In addition to state security, Belgium's civil intelligence service, the BIM Commission, will also be introduced. This administrative committee, which is responsible for overseeing specific and exceptional methods of data collection by intelligence and security services, was established in 2010 to advise on the application of certain methods (such as electronic communications searches, surveillance techniques) and some exceptional methods (such as wiretapping techniques). phone calls, search bank accounts).
The head of the Office of Threat Assessment Coordination (OCAD) and the Military Intelligence Service (ADIV) will also testify.
Intercepted conversation
It is also likely to discuss the intercepted conversations of several of the defendants, which have already caused so much controversy. These include conversations between the accused, Muhammad Abrini, and Mahdi Nemmouche, the perpetrator of the 2014 attack on the Jewish Museum, in which four people were killed, and between Abrini and the defendant, Bilal Al-Mukhoukhi.
The conversations confirmed that Abu Imran, alias al-Makhukhi, was hiding weapons for another attack. Al-Makhwhi only confirmed in June last year that he had indeed hidden the weapons, without saying where.
The defense complained that these conversations dated back to 2016 but were not included in the file until 2019. The prosecution claimed this was in the interest of intelligence, given the untraceable nature of the weapons.
In the afternoon, the court will hear testimony regarding the rental of an apartment in Kazerlanan in Etterbeek, which Ismail Farsi is accused of subletting to suicide bomber Ibrahim El Bakraoui. According to what the Belgian news agency reported today, and added, “His brother Khaled El-Bakrawy left this apartment on March 22 with the accused, Osama Karim, with a backpack containing a bomb in the direction of the Betillon metro station. Karim turned right, and El-Bakrawy detonated his bomb in Malbec.