Isis terrorist behind Paris attacks is jailed for life

‘I ask you to hate me with moderation’

The only bomber to survive the worst terrorist attack in recent French history will spend the rest of his life in prison, judges ruled last night.

Salah Abdeslam, 32, has no hope of parole for his part in the November 2015 atrocities in which 130 people were murdered.

Five specialist anti-terrorist judges sitting in Paris announced last night that Abdeslam was guilty of various terrorist-related charges along with 18 other defendants.

It followed a marathon ten-month trial at a special court at the Palais de Justice.

Abdeslam, a French Moroccan national from Belgium, claimed he pulled out of the rampage in which other Isis terrorists, including his brother, were blown to pieces.

The court found that Abdeslam, who described himself as a ‘Soldier with Islamic State’, was part of the ‘commando unit’ that attacked the Stade de France national sports stadium in Paris, together with six restaurants and bars, and the Bataclan music hall.

Fourteen of the 20 original defendants were in court, but six were tried in their absence, most presumed to have died in Syria or Iraq.

Prosecutors alleged that Abdeslam’s explosive vest malfunctioned and he fled the French capital after the Friday 13 attack.

Days after his arrest in March 2016 after a four-month manhunt that ended in a shootout in Brussels, suicide bombers alleged to be part of the same cell struck at the city’s airport and on the city’s underground, killing 32 and injuring hundreds. Abdeslam has already been sentenced in Brussels to 20 years in prison for the shootout that accompanied his arrest. he said: ‘I know that there is still hate for me. I ask you to hate me with moderation.’

Also facing life in prison was Mohamed Abrini, Abdeslam’s 36-year- old childhood friend, who is believed to have travelled to the Paris region with the attackers.

Abrini was later captured on CCTV with the two Brussels airport bombers and became known as ‘The Man in the hat’.

Other defendants were accused of helping with planning or logistics. Fourteen were in court, but six were tried in their absence, presumed to have died in Syria or Iraq.

The investigation into the attacks took six years.

The mammoth legal process began last September. Around 450 witnesses – wounded victims and relatives of those who died – appeared in court to recount their ordeals.

The Paris attacks trial will ‘stand as a landmark for justice,’ said Philippe Duperron, whose son was killed in the Bataclan.