PARIS BOMB ACCUSED DECLARES: ‘I PUT TRUST IN ALLAH’
▶ Abdeslam appears in Belgian court and lectures judges on how justice has failed Muslim suspects
Appearing under high security and the focus of enduring survivor anguish, the last alleged perpetrator of the 2015 terrorist attacks on the Bataclan theatre in Paris, Salah Abdeslam, yesterday declared his disdain for Belgian justice.
In front of judges, Abdeslam said he would refuse to testify in the four-day hearing and that he would put his “trust in Allah” as he refused to answer questions in the case related to an ambush in Brussels months after the French attack.
Lawyers for Abdeslam accept that he was in Paris on Friday, November 13, 2015, when gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 at the Bataclan concert hall, Stade de France and at cafes and restaurants.
Abdeslam’s elder brother, with whom he ran a bar in Brussels, was among those who blew himself up.
Prosecutors believe the surviving attacker ran logistics for the attack, including ferrying fighters from Syria across Europe, and would have met the same fate had his explosive vest not malfunctioned.
The 28-year-old has grown long hair and a beard during his nearly two years behind bars. He was transferred from a jail near the French capital overnight for the trial.
“I am not afraid of you. I am not afraid of your allies,” he said. “I put my trust in Allah and that’s all. My refusal does not make me a criminal.”
A Belgian-born French national of Moroccan descent, he argued that the justice system was biased against his faith. “Muslims are judged and treated in the worst of ways, mercilessly. There is no presumption of innocence.”
A bereaved relative of one of the victims spoke of his dismay outside the court.
“Regarding Salah Abdeslam, we hoped at one point that he would change his strategy but actually not only is he not doing that and staying quiet but the statements he is making are clearly malignant, a form of provocation,” said Philippe Duperron, the president of a survivors association.
Abdeslam and Sofiane Ayari, 24, a Tunisian arrested with him, face charges of attempted murder of police officers and carrying banned weapons.
During the hearing the federal prosecutor told the court that DNA evidence suggested it was Ayari who fired shots that wounded police officers in the ambush but that Abdeslam should be considered a conspirator. Both men are accused of attempted murder of officer “in a terrorist context”.
The fingerprints of the former bar owner were found in the flat targeted in the Brussels raid and Abdeslam is reported to have disposed of a suicide belt before fleeing.
Three days after the raid, armed officers shot Abdeslam in the leg and captured him and Ayari yards from Abdeslam’s home in Molenbeek, a Brussels neighbourhood.
His arrest ended four months on the run as Europe’s most wanted man after the November attacks.
He launched his diatribe after presiding judge Marie-France Keutgen asked why he insisted on attending the trial and then refused to answer questions about the charges against him.
The judge rejected his accusations of bias, insisting he was presumed innocent.
The non-jury trial is the prelude to a later one in France, and prosecutors hope the Brussels case will yield clues not only about the Paris attacks but also the Brussels bombings on March 22, 2016.
Investigators believe Abdeslam’s capture three days after the shoot-out caused members of the cell to bring forward plans for the attacks on Brussels airport and a metro station in which 32 people were killed.
Ayari, who is co-operating with authorities, told the judge he knew Ibrahim Bakroui, one of the suicide bombers at Brussels airport, and that he visited the apartment where the shootout occurred.
The same cell is believed to have been behind the Paris and Brussels attacks, which were claimed by ISIL.
But Ayari – who entered Europe via the Greek islands during the European migration crisis in 2015 – insisted: “I don’t think I am a radical.”
The plans for transferring Abdeslam from Fleury-Merogis prison in the Parisian suburbs, and then back to a prison just across the border in northern France every night, were shrouded in secrecy.
Two separate convoys left Fleury-Merogis in the middle of the night with an escort of elite French officers in vehicles with blue lights flashing, while a third group of unmarked vehicles left shortly afterwards.
I am not afraid of you. I am not afraid of your allies. I put my trust in Allah and that’s all. My refusal does not make me a criminal SALAH ABDESLAM Terrorism suspect