Image copyright Belgian/French police

Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving suspect from the 2015 Paris attacks, has been jailed for 20 years in Belgium over a gunfight that led to his arrest.

Abdeslam, 28, and co-defendant Sofien Ayari were both convicted of terror-related charges of attempted murder.

Ayari, 24, was also given a 20-year sentence. Both fired on officers who raided a flat in Brussels in 2016.

Abdeslam is being held in a jail in France and is due to face trial there over the Paris attacks themselves.

He had refused to answer questions from the judge in the trial in Brussels, and eventually refused to attend the hearings.

Neither he nor Ayari, a 24-year-old Tunisian national, was in court as the verdict was read out on Monday. Both received the maximum 20-year term requested by prosecutors.

The judge, Marie France Keutgen, said that "there can be no doubt" about the two men's involvement with "radicalism".

She added: "Their intention is clear from the nature of the weapons they used, the number of bullets they fired and the nature of the police officers' wounds. Only the officers' professional response prevented it being worse."

Why was there a shoot-out?

On 15 March 2016, Belgian police hunting Abdeslam carried out a raid in the Forest area of Brussels.

They targeted a flat believing that the suspect - who by then had been on the run for four months - had been there.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Damian Grammaticas reports from the scene of the raid

When they moved in they exchanged fire with the three occupants. One of the three was killed and three officers were wounded.

Abdeslam and Ayari managed to escape, but Abdeslam's fingerprints were found in the flat, confirming his presence there.

He was picked up days later in a raid in the nearby Molenbeek area, and later transferred to France.

What do we know about Abdeslam?

He is a French national who was born in Brussels to French-Moroccan parents.

He was involved in petty crime in Belgium as a youth, and is believed to have become radicalised along with his brother Salim around 2014.

Both then reportedly joined a French-Belgian network linked with the Islamic State group (IS), which later claimed the Paris attacks.

The network was involved in both the Paris attacks and bombings that struck the Brussels metro and airport on 22 March 2016, just days after Abdeslam's arrest, killing 32 people.

In Monday's ruling, the court denied a request by victims from those attacks that they be regarded as a civil party to the case, saying no link had been established with Abdeslam and Ayari.

How has Abdeslam been linked to the Paris attacks?

He is believed to have played a key role on 13 November 2015 - when militants targeted a concert hall, stadium, restaurants and bars, killing 130 people and injuring hundreds more.

French prosecutors believe Abdeslam helped the jihadists by hiring cars, flats and hotel rooms - although his role in the actual shootings and bombings is unclear.

His brother Salim was among the attackers and blew himself up outside a cafe.

Salah Abdeslam and two associates drove from Paris to Brussels the next day. They were stopped by police at a border checkpoint, but were allowed to travel as Abdeslam had not yet been identified as a suspect.

French and Belgian authorities released Abdeslam's photo and name a day later - by which time he was Europe's most wanted man.

Several flats were raided by Belgian police over the next few months. He and Ayari were finally picked up in the Molenbeek raid on 18 March 2016.</s>Police patrol outside the Brussels justice palace during the trial of Salah Abdeslam

Police patrol outside the Brussels justice palace during the trial of Salah Abdeslam

A BELGIAN COURT has sentenced the sole surviving suspect in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, to 20 years in prison on terror charges over a bloody gun battle with police in Brussels days before his capture in 2016.

Abdeslam’s co-defendant Sofiane Ayari received the same sentence after the pair were convicted of terrorism-related attempted murder over the shootout in which four police officers were wounded.

Judges at the court in Brussels said that “there can be no doubt about their commitment to radicalism” as they handed down the maximum jail term demanded by Belgian prosecutors at the trial in February.

Neither Abdeslam, aged 28, a Belgian-born French national, nor Ayari, a 24-year-old Tunisian citizen, was in court to hear the verdict.

Abdeslam is being held in jail in France pending a separate trial over the November 2015 Paris attacks, claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, in which 130 people died.

The pair were convicted of opening fire on a team of Belgian and French police who raided a flat in the Forest area of Brussels on 15 March 2016, following a tip-off about the Paris attacks. A third jihadist was killed in the raid.

At the time Abdeslam was regarded as the most wanted man in Europe.

Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French national, fled the scene but was arrested three days later in the largely immigrant Molenbeek area of the Belgian capital, near his family home.

On 22 March, suicide bombers from a cell linked to the Paris attacks killed 32 people and wounded hundreds more at Brussels airport and a metro station in the Belgian capital.

Abdeslam’s lawyer Sven Mary told reporters outside the court that he would consult with his client at the prison where he is being held in France “and then we will see if he wants to lodge an appeal”.

He said Abdeslam would likely have to serve the full Belgian 20-year term on top of any sentence that arises from the French trial over the Paris attacks.

The judgment said Abdeslam had written a document addressed to his mother saying that “Allah guided me and chose me among his servants to open his path. It is for that reason that I had to fight the enemies of Allah with all my strength”.

He added that his brother Brahim, who blew himself up during the Paris attacks, “did not commit suicide – he is a hero of Islam”.

Monday’s judgment said a total of 34 shots were fired during the shootout.

Belgian police mounted tight security around the imposing Palace of Justice building in Brussels for the verdict.

Abdeslam has spent most of the last two years in jail in France.

He was transported to the court from France for the start of the trial in February amid tight security including a helicopter escort, while Ayari is in jail in Belgium.

On the first day of the trial, sporting long hair and a beard instead of the clean-cut look familiar from his mugshots, Abdeslam proclaimed that he would put his “trust in Allah” and accused the court of being biased against Muslims.

He then refused to attend the rest of the proceedings.

Investigators say Abdeslam’s arrest spurred the Brussels bombers to bring forward the 2016 attacks, which had originally been planned for a later date, as they feared their capture.

Prosecutors have said that DNA links Abdeslam to the apartment in the Forest district of Brussels where the shooting took place, but not to the weapons that were used.

After Abdeslam refused to return to court for the trial in February, Mary sought the case’s dismissal on a technicality over how the judges were named to investigate the gun battle, and said media leaks had denied him a fair trial.

But lawyers for police wounded in the gun battle accused Abdeslam of “mocking” the trial.

One of the injured police officers was still suffering from after-effects including brain lesions, epileptic fits and vision and balance problems.

An organisation representing victims of the Brussels attacks and their families is seeking symbolic damages of €1.</s>The Brussels Criminal Court has convicted Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving suspect in the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, of attempted murder over his role in a shootout with Belgian police in 2016.

Abdeslam and his co-defendant Sofiane Ayari were charged with terrorist-related attempted murder and possession of banned weapons over the shootout, which led to Abdeslam’s capture.

Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year sentence for the pair.

Abdeslam was not in court for the verdict. He is awaiting trial in France over the 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people. Ayari is being held in Belgium, but was also not present for the verdict.

CORRECTION: This article was updated to correct the date of the Paris terror attacks.</s>Paris terror attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam and an accomplice have been guilty of attempted murder over shots fired at police they sought to avoid arrest in a Brussels suburb.

The court in Brussels handed both Abdeslam and Sofiane Ayari the maximum 20-year sentence.

It said the “terror character” was clearly established in the March 2016 shooting, four months after the Paris attacks that killed 130 in November 2015.

Court president Luc Hennart said the two chose not to attend the reading of the verdict and sentencing. Abdeslam attended the opening day of the trial in February but has refused to co-operate since. He is being held in a prison in northern France.

It is unclear when he will face trial over the Paris attacks.

The conclusion of the case at Brussels’ ornate palace of justice took place amid tight security set up by the armed forces and police.

Abdeslam was close to being arrested in a hideout when he and Ayari fled, while another man sprayed gunfire at police and was killed. Three officers were wounded.

Three days later, Abdeslam was captured in Brussels. Four days after that, extremists struck in the Belgian capital, killing 32 people in bomb attacks at the airport and on the subway system.</s>Salah Abdeslam still faces trial over the 2015 Paris attacks, but a Belgian court sentenced him to 20 years in prison on Monday over charges related to his shootout with police when he resisted arrest in Brussels months after the deadly violence in Paris.

Abdeslam, 28, was found guilty of attempted terrorist murder and illegal possession of firearms after attacking the police officers who found him and two other suspects hiding out in a Brussels apartment.

Months earlier, Abdeslam had become the subject of a manhunt as the only known survivor of the Islamic State terror cell that carried out the suicide bombings and mass shootings on Nov. 13, 2015, that killed at least 130 people — many of them at the Bataclan concert hall.

Three Belgian officers were wounded and one suspect was killed in the shootout that flushed Abdeslam from his hiding place. He was arrested a few days later in the immigrant neighborhood of Molenbeek.

The Palais de Justice in Brussels rendered its verdict on Abdeslam and an accomplice, Sofien Ayari, on Monday. Both of them received 20-year sentences.

The Belgian trial began more than two months ago, when Abdeslam refused to stand and said that he would not answer any questions during the proceedings.

"Salah Abdeslam is not attending the court in Brussels," reports Belgian media outlet Flanders News. "He has chosen to remain in his jail cell outside Paris where he is awaiting trial in connection with the Paris attacks."

In France, the trial for Abdeslam regarding the Paris attacks isn't expected to begin for months.</s>A Belgian court on Monday found 2015 Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam and an accomplice guilty of attempted murder over shots fired at police as they sought to avoid arrest in Brussels.

The court handed both Abdeslam, Europe’s most wanted fugitive at the time, and Sofiane Ayari the maximum 20-year sentence.

It said the “terror character” was clearly established in the March 2016 shooting, four months after the Paris attacks that killed 130. Abdeslam was close to being arrested in a hideout when he and Ayari fled while another man sprayed gunfire at police and was killed. Three officers were wounded.

His lawyer Sven Mary said it remains to be seen whether Abdeslam will seek to appeal his sentence. He has 30 days to decide. Mary insisted it is unclear whether Abdeslam himself had fired shots at officers trying to break into the hideout.

“If there is doubt, he should have been let go, it’s that simple,” Mary said.

Abdeslam attended the opening day of the trial in February but has refused to co-operate since. He is being held in a French prison. Ayari was also absent.

It is unclear when Abdeslam will face trial over the Paris attacks but it is expected to take several years.

The conclusion of the case at Brussels’ ornate palace of justice took place amid tight security set up by the armed forces and police.

“As all our demands have been met we can be satisfied, said Maryse Alie, a lawyer for the police. ”The judgment says that firing at policemen on duty is a very serious crime.“

Ayari is a Tunisian who fought with the Islamic State group for a year before heading to Europe. By the time he and Abdeslam began hiding in the upstairs apartment in central Brussels, police had raided more than a dozen locations in Belgium with little to show for it.

On the afternoon of March 15, 2016, they battered down yet another door. This time, it was to the staccato of an assault rifle. An IS fighter opened fire on the officers, who had only service weapons, while Abdeslam and Ayari darted onto a rooftop, broke into a neighbouring apartment and escaped, authorities said.

The fugitives left behind a Kalashnikov, ammunition clips, a cellphone and a tunic — their DNA was everywhere, according to court testimony.

Three days after the shooting spree, Abdeslam was captured in Brussels. Four days after that, extremists struck in the Belgian capital, killing 32 people in bomb attacks at the airport and on the subway system.</s>A Belgian court on Monday found Salah Abdeslam, the last surviving suspect in the Paris attacks, guilty of terrorism-related attempted murder over a shootout with police in Brussels days before his capture in 2016, and sentenced him to 20 years in jail.

In its judgment, the court in the Belgian capital said “there can be no doubt” about jihadist Salah Abdeslam and his co-defendant Sofiane Ayari’s involvement in extremism.

Prosecutors had asked for 20-year jail terms for both.

Neither 28-year-old Abdeslam -- who is being held in jail in France pending a separate trial over the 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people died -- nor Ayari, 24, were in court for the verdict.

Four police officers were wounded in the gun battle after police acting on a tip-off over the Paris attacks raided a flat in the Forest area of Brussels on March 15, 2016.

Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French national, was arrested three days later in the largely immigrant Molenbeek area of the Belgian capital, near his family home.

On March 22 suicide bombers from a cell linked to the Paris attacks killed 32 people and wounded hundreds more at Brussels airport and a metro station in the Belgian capital.

The judgment said Abdeslam had written a document addressed to his mother saying that “Allah guided me and chose me among his servants to open his path. It is for that reason that I had to fight the enemies of Allah with all my strength.”

He added that his brother Brahim, who blew himself up during the Paris attacks, “did not commit suicide -- he is a hero of Islam.”

The judgment on Monday said that 34 shots in total were fired during the shootout.

Belgian police mounted tight security around the imposing Palace of Justice building in Brussels for the verdict.

Abdeslam has spent most of the last two years in jail in France.

He was transported to the court from France for the first day of the trial amid tight security including a helicopter escort, while Tunisian national Ayari, 24, is in jail in Belgium.

On the first day of the trial, Abdeslam proclaimed that he would only put his “trust in Allah” and accused the court of being biased against Muslims.

He then refused to attend the rest of the proceedings.

Investigators say Abdeslam’s arrest spurred the Brussels bombers to bring forward the 2016 attacks, which had originally been planned for a later date, as they feared they could be captured.

Prosecutors have said that DNA links Abdeslam to the apartment in the Forest district of Brussels where the shooting took place, but not to the weapons that were used.

After Abdeslam refused to return to court for the trial in February, his lawyer Sven Mary sought the case’s dismissal on a technicality over how the judges were named to investigate the gun battle, and said media leaks had denied him a fair trial.

But lawyers for police wounded in the gun battle accused Abdeslam of “mocking” the trial.

One of the injured police officers was still suffering from after-effects including brain lesions, epileptic fits and vision and balance problems.

An organisation representing victims of the Brussels attacks and their families has asked for symbolic damages of one euro from the trial.

The Belgian trial is a prelude to a bigger one that Abdeslam will face in France at a later date over the Paris attacks of November 13, 2015, which were claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.</s>Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the cell alleged to have carried out the November 2015 Paris terror attacks, has been jailed for 20 years over a shootout with Belgian police days before he was arrested.

A Belgian court found Abdeslam guilty of attempted murder in a “terrorist context”, a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor confirmed.

Abdeslam was involved in a confrontation with police in the Forest suburb of Brussels in March 2016, four months after the attacks on a Paris concert hall and restaurants left 130 people dead.

Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French national, was arrested three days after the shootout, in which four police officers were injured. Police found him in Molenbeek, another area of the Belgian capital, where his family live.

Neither of the two accused appeared in court for the verdict. After declaring on the first day of proceedings that the court was biased against Muslims and he would only “trust in Allah,” Abdeslam refused to attend the rest of the trial.

Abdeslam is in jail in France, where he is awaiting a separate trial over the 2016 Paris attacks.</s>A Belgian court will give its verdict Monday on Salah Abdeslam, the last surviving suspect in the Paris Islamist attacks, over a bloody 2016 shootout with police in Brussels that led to his capture.

Prosecutors asked at the trial in February for Abdeslam and his co-defendant Sofiane Ayari to be jailed for up to 20 years if found guilty on charges of terrorist-related attempted murder and possession of banned weapons.

Neither Abdeslam, who is being held in jail in France pending a separate trial over the 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people died, nor Ayari is expected to be in court in Brussels for the verdict, a court spokesman told AFP.

Belgian security forces will mount a major operation around the imposing Palace of Justice building in Brussels for the verdict, which judges are due to start reading out at 0645 GMT.

Abdeslam, 28, a Belgian-born French national, was transported to the court from France for the first day of the trial amid tight security including a helicopter escort, while Tunisian national Ayari, 24, is in jail in Belgium.

On the first day of the trial, Abdeslam proclaimed that he would only put his “trust in Allah” and accused the court of being biased against Muslims.

He then refused to attend the rest of the proceedings.

Three police officers were wounded in the gun battle after police acting on a tip-off over the Paris attacks raided a flat in the Forest area of Brussels on March 15, 2016.

Abdeslam was arrested three days later in the largely immigrant Molenbeek area of the Belgian capital, near his family home.

On March 22 suicide bombers from a cell linked to the Paris attacks killed 32 people and wounded hundreds more at Brussels airport and a metro station in the Belgian capital.

Investigators say Abedeslam’s arrest spurred the Brussels bombers to bring forward the attacks, which had originally been planned for a later date, as they feared they could be captured.

Prosecutors have said that DNA links Abdeslam to the apartment in the Forest district of Brussels where the shooting took place, but not to the weapons themselves that were used.

After Abdeslam refused to return to court for the trial in February, his lawyer Sven Mary sought the case’s dismissal on a technicality over how the judges were named to investigate the gun battle, and said media leaks had denied him a fair trial.

But lawyers for police wounded in the gun battle accused Abdeslam of “mocking” the trial.

One of the injured police officers was still suffering from after-effects including brain lesions, epileptic fits and vision and balance problems.

An organisation representing victims of the Brussels attacks and their families has asked for symbolic damages of one euro from the trial.

The Belgian trial is a prelude to a bigger one that Abdeslam will face in France at a later date over the November 13, 2015, Paris attacks, which were claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Abdeslam’s brother Brahim was one of the suicide bombers.</s>The sole surviving suspect in the 2015 Paris extremist attacks, who was once Europe's most wanted fugitive, will not be in court to hear his judgment in an attempted murder case on Monday.

Salah Abdeslam is being tried in Belgium for his alleged involvement in a March 15, 2016, police shootout, four months after the Paris attacks that killed 130.

Abdeslam and alleged accomplice Sofien Ayari will not be present for the reading and sentencing in the case, court president Luc Hennart said. He did not give a reason.

Abdeslam was close to being arrested in a hideout when he and Ayari fled while another man sprayed gunfire toward police and was killed.

Three days later, Abdeslam was caught in Brussels.

Federal prosecutors are seeking 20-year prison sentences for both men, citing a terrorist link in the shootout.

The conclusion of the case at Brussels' ornate palace of justice is taking place amid intense security set up by the armed forces and police, even though Abdeslam remains in prison in northern France.
Suspect Salah Abdeslam and a co-defendant are convicted of attempting to murder police officers and terror offences in Belgium, with each receiving a 20-year sentence. Abdeslam is being held in France awaiting trial for the 2015 attacks.