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Belgium braces up for final verdict on biggest ever terrorism trial under tight security in the port city of Antwerp. 46 members of Sharia4Belgium, a radical Salafist group has been accused of recruiting dozens of young Muslims to fight for the jihadist group.

Jejoen Bontick,20,is one of the defendants. He was raised as Catholic, but at the age of 15 he fell for a Muslim girl and converted to Islam.

His father, Dimitri Bontinck had risked his own life by travelling to the war zone to find his son and was eventually successful in bringing him back. Local group Sharia4Belgium had trapped his son to fight in Syria, he said, leaving him and Jejoen's Nigerian-born mother in distress.

"The way they are groomed, the way they are initiated, the way they take on new names, the way they have their rituals, it all attracted youngsters going through moments of adolescent angst” Bontinck said about Jejoen’s failed romance.

Belgian authorities say they are not only fighting a battle with extremism abroad, but also at home. Last month, counter-terrorist officers said they had foiled a jihadi plot to stage a major attack in Belgium which was alleged to be similar to the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. Two gunmen were killed in a shootout in the town of Verviers.

-Smrutirekha