Belgian court convicts six of murder for 2016 Brussels bombings

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Brussels court convicted six men of murder and two others of terrorism charges on Tuesday after the country's largest ever trial into the 2016 Islamist bombings in the Belgian capital that killed 32 people.

The six, of 10 facing charges, were found guilty of murder and attempted murder in a terrorist context for their part in the twin bombings at Brussels airport and third bomb on the city's metro on March 22, 2016.

They and two others were also convicted of participating in the activities of a terrorism organisation. Two men were acquitted.

The trial will hold separate hearings to determine sentences in September. Those found guilty of murder face potential life sentences.

Among those convicted was Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the trial into the Paris attacks that killed 130 people. On the run after fleeing the French capital, he was seized in Brussels four days before the Belgian attacks.

Others found guilty included Mohamed Abrini, who went to Brussels Airport with two suicide bombers but fled without detonating his suitcase of explosives and Osama Krayem, a Swedish national accused of planning to be a second bomber on Brussels' metro.

Oussama Atar, seen as the group's leader and presumed to have been killed in Syria, was also convicted.

The four are among six accused already convicted in France over the November 2015 Paris attacks, but unlike the French trial which concluded last year with a decision by a panel of judges, the Brussels case was settled by a jury.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Marine Strauss; editing by Jonathan Oatis)