Main suspects handed 20 years to life sentence for 2016 Brussels bombings

BRUSSELS: A Belgian court on Friday sentenced eight defendants in the country's largest ever trial involving the 2016 Islamist bombings in Brussels that killed 32 people, Belga news agency said.

Six men, who were found guilty of murder and attempted murder for their part in the twin bombings at Brussels airport and third bomb on the city's metro on March 22, 2016, were handed sentences ranging from 20 years to life in jail.

Among those convicted was Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the trial over the Paris attacks that killed 130 people. The court considered that the French sentence of life in prison for his role in the 2015 Paris attack and his 20 year prison sentence over a Brussels shooting was enough and he did not receive a further sentence.

On the run after fleeing the French capital, he was seized in Brussels four days before the Belgian attacks.