Abdeslam ‘a model prisoner’ as he awaits deportation to France
THE first photo of Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam in prison since he was seized last month was published yesterday, as police arrested a further three people in a Brussels suburb linked to the Paris atrocities of last November. The Flemish newspaper Het Nieuws
blad carried the first close-up image of the terror suspect since his arrest last month in which he was shot in the leg after four months on the run.
In place of the previous image of Abdeslam as clean-shaven and smart, the 26-year-old has grown a beard and has longer hair.
A prison source told Het Nieuwsblad that the suspect thought to have played a key logistics role in the Paris attacks in which 130 died was a “model prisoner”.
“He’s a very good boy and is an example to other inmates in terms of behaviour,” said the source. “We have had no negative comments about his actions,” he went on, confirming that the French national had an “excellent appetite”.
Abdeslam is due to be deported to France, where he will face trial for terrorism offences in connection with the Nov 13 Paris attacks.
With authorities fearing he may try to take his own life, Het Nieuwsblad claimed that guards visit him several times each hour and he is the subject of regular body checks.
There were also recent reports that authorities want to put CCTV in his cell to keep a closer eye on him.
While Abdeslam’s lawyer claims he wants to co-operate, he has told police he had no knowledge that attacks were being planned on Brussels.
In other developments, Belgian police arrested three people in a Brussels suburb during a new raid linked to the Paris attacks, Belgian federal prosecutors said.
The investigating judge will decide today whether to continue holding the three, it added, without giving any further details.
Earlier, the prosecutor’s office announced that Belgium had charged brothers Smail and Ibrahim Farisi over the Mar 22 Brussels airport and metro bombings that left 32 people dead and hundreds wounded.