BRUSSELS: A top Belgian court on Monday prohibited the authorities from making the defendants at the trial into the 2016 Brussels terror attacks kneel for strip searches.
Six suspects had filed a complaint after refusing to attend the hearings into the suicide bomb attacks that killed 32 people in protest at the anal searches conducted by police.
The appeals court in Brussels backed a preliminary decision in December by ruling there was no legal basis for making the subjects "genuflect" during searches as they were being transferred from prison to court.
The ruling, seen by AFP, ordered the Belgian state "to put an end to this practice".
Nine defendants are currently facing justice over the March 22, 2016 bomb attacks claimed by the Islamic State group that hit Brussels airport and the city's metro.
A 10th suspect is believed to have been killed in Syria.
Belgium's biggest-ever criminal trial is being held under tight security at a purpose-built space in the disused former headquarters of the NATO alliance.
The prime suspect is Salah Abdeslam, who is already notorious after being convicted in a separate trial in France for his role in the 2015 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.
Survivors of the attacks and relatives of those killed began giving testimony last week.
The trial is expected to last until June.
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