Surviving suspect in Paris attacks on trial in Belgium
BRUSSELS — Salah Abdeslam, who is believed to be the only surviving member of the group that carried out a series of coordinated attacks in and around Paris more than two years ago, went on trial Monday in a case that will be closely watched to see if it sheds light on the assaults that reverberated across Europe.
Abdeslam, 28, and a co-defendant, Sofien Ayari, are accused of shooting at and wounding Belgian and French police officers who were searching for them in southern Brussels, four months after the attacks in Paris and St.-Denis that left 130 people dead, and days before two attacks in Brussels, one at the main airport and another on a subway train.
The trial in Brussels is the first time the public will be given a sense of how prosecutors are piecing together the parts of what they say was a larger conspiracy, and Abdeslam used the occasion to suggest that he had been prejudged by both the public and the court because he is a Muslim.
Abdeslam had refused to break his silence after his arrest, and the trial provides authorities with a first opportunity to bring someone to account for the attacks, which focused attention on the threat of European fighters for the Islamic State who filtered back to their home countries with the intent of committing acts of terrorism.
The attacks in Paris were followed by assaults in Brussels; in Nice, France; in Würzburg, Germany; in Berlin; in Stockholm; and in Barcelona, Spain — among others — for which the Islamic State claimed either responsibility or influence.
Before dawn Monday, Abdeslam, who is French, and Ayari, a Tunisian, were removed from the high-security prison at Fleury-Mérogis, just south of Paris, and transported by police convoy to Brussels.
Abdeslam refused to stand or to confirm his name when asked by the court. “I was asked to come, and so I came. There is a trial, and I am the actor, and so I came,” he said.
He went on to criticize the court, and suggested that it was unduly influenced by public opinion.
“What I observe is that Muslims are judged, treated in the worst of ways,” he said. “They’re judged mercilessly. There is no presumption of innocence, there is nothing, we’re immediately guilty.”
Abdeslam also faces charges for his role in the attacks in France, but the trial in Brussels is centered on the final days of a four-month hunt by police and security forces. During that time, he eluded arrest, going from house to house across Brussels, before nearly being cornered on March 15, 2016, when several police officers were shot and wounded.
Abdeslam is accused of being one of the gunmen in that shootout, as is Ayari, who was hiding with him. As police advanced on the apartment where they were hiding, Abdeslam and Ayari fled, leaving a third man to cover their retreat. That man was killed while Abdeslam and Ayari escaped; the defendants were captured three days later.
Another trial, to be held in France, will deal with the attack there and with Abdeslam’s alleged role.