Paris jihadist: I was too afraid to blow myself up
Fugitive held in high-security jail on terror charges He tells police he backed out of stadium bombing g Pizza delivery to o his hideout helped d to give him away
THE mastermind behind the Paris terror attacks has admitted he planned to blow himself up at the French national stadium – but changed his mind at the last minute.
Prosecutors said Salah Abdeslam, who was captured after four months on the run, has confessed he intended to be part of the Islamic State suicide bomber unit that struck the stadium in November.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the 26-year-old – the only survivor of the 10-strong terror gang – had played a ‘central role’ in planning the shootings and bombings which left 130 dead in Paris.
Yesterday it was also revealed how Abdeslam was finally caught after armed police noticed a large number of pizzas being delivered to his hideout on Friday.
Officers spotted the order being taken to a property under surveillance in Belgium’s terrorist hotbed – suggesting a gang was inside.
Sources also believe the authorities discovered his location after finding one of his mobile phones and receiving a tip-off from an informant at the funeral of his brother, who was also part of the terrorist group. Abdeslam – who was shot below the knee during Friday’s raid – was yesterday charged with ‘terrorist murder’ and transferred from hospital to a prison in Bruges as the process begins to extradite him to France.
French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the arrest of Abdeslam and two other alleged Islamist extremists was a major blow to jihadis in Europe. ‘The operations of the past week have enabled us to incapacitate several individuals who are extremely dangerous and determined,’ he said.
Yet counter-terror experts have expressed surprise that he managed to remain at large for so long in Molenbeek, the rundown district of Brussels that has become notorious as Europe’s jihadi capital, and which the authorities had promised to search house by house. French politician Alain Marsaud said: ‘This escapade is not a suc- cess ffor ththe BBelgianli iintelligencet lli services. Either Abdeslam is very clever, or the Belgian authorities services are stupid, which is more likely.’ A lack of information-shar- in ing between Belgium and France le let Abdeslam waltz through three police checks in France hours after th the attacks. At one stage, he is th thought to have fooled police by h hiding in a cupboard being carried fr from a flat.
Several of the IS terror group are feared to have fought in Syria before sneaking back into Europe, some posing as refugees.