IS attack suspect won’t answer court questions
Held in shootout, he’s been linked to massacre in France.
BRUSSELS — The man accused of being a would-be Islamic State attacker who was once Europe’s most wanted fugitive defied a Belgian court Monday, refusing to rise or answer questions during his first public appearance since his arrest nearly two years ago.
Salah Abdeslam is facing attempted murder charges in Brussels from a police shootout four months after the Paris attacks. Abdeslam and an accomplice fled while another man sprayed automatic gunfire and was killed. The pair was captured a few days later in the same neighborhood where Abdeslam and many of the dead attackers grew up.
Abdeslam arrived in the Belgian capital Monday morning after being transferred from a prison in France. Security was high at the Brussels courthouse, with armed guards and multiple checkpoints leading to the courtroom.
“I do not wish to respond to any questions. I was asked to come. I came,” said Abdeslam, who stayed seated for the hearing, flanked by police in balaclavas. “I defend myself by keeping silent.”
Asked why he was refusing to stand, Abdeslam said: “I’m tired, I did not sleep.”
Abdeslam, now with a full beard and longer hair than in pictures released before his March 18, 2016, arrest, refused to answer questions beyond a few formalities and stared straight ahead for much of the hearing.
“Muslims are judged and treated without pity. There is no presumption of innocence,” he said. “I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of your allies. I place my faith in Allah.”
He is being tried alongside a second defendant, Sofiane Ayari.
Federal prosecutors in Belgium are seeking 20-year prison sentences for both men, formally citing a terrorist link in the shootout.
Abdeslam has previously refused to speak to investigators in France about the attack there that killed 130 on Nov. 13, 2015. In the aftermath, Abdeslam slipped through a police dragnet and for four months stayed in a series of hideouts with Ayari and other jihadis. By then, his photo along with the dire warning “armed and dangerous” was plastered throughout Europe.
Ayari, a Tunisian who fought with IS for a year before heading to Europe, repeatedly refused to name accomplices, nor would he explain why he had traveled with others from the group to Belgium, where a fake ID with his photo awaited his arrival. By the time Abdeslam and Ayari moved into the upstairs apartment, police had raided more than a dozen locations in Belgium with little to show for it.
On the afternoon of March 15, 2016, they battered down yet another door. This time, it was to the staccato of an assault rifle. An IS fighter opened fire on the officers, who had only service weapons, while Abdeslam and Ayari darted onto a rooftop, broke into a neighboring apartment and escaped, authorities said.
The fugitives left behind a Kalashnikov, ammunition clips, a cellphone and a tunic . Three officers were wounded.
Three days later, Abdeslam and Ayari were caught in Molenbeek at the home of Abdeslam’s cousin.
Four days after his capture, extremists struck in Brussels. The same bombmaker who had built the explosives in Paris packed even more deadly material into suicide bombs at the airport and metro. Thirty-two people died along with the three bombers. In all, the network killed 162 people in Paris and Brussels.