Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving suspect in the 2015 Paris attacks, has been sentenced in Belgium to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of the attempted murder of police officers in a shootout in Brussels in March 2016.

Abdeslam’s accomplice, Sofien Ayari, was also given a 20-year sentence for his role in the shooting, which left four officers injured. Neither man appeared in court for the three-hour session at the Palais de Justice in Brussels, during which the verdict was read out. Judges said there could be no doubt about the pair’s commitment to radicalism as the maximum jail term requested by Belgian prosecutors was handed down. The two men were also convicted for possessing firearms and each fined €12,000.

Abdeslam, who is being held in a high-security prison in northern France, is expected to go on trial for the Paris attacks in 2020, on charges of murder linked to a terrorist organisation. Abdeslam was named Europe’s most wanted man after fleeing to Belgium after the coordinated bombing and shooting attack in the French capital on 13 November 2015, which killed 130 and was claimed by Islamic State.(theguardian)…[+]