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 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 revealed Salah Abdeslam, finally captured after four months on the run, has confessed he planned to be in the Islamic State suicide bomber unit that struck the stadium in November.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the 26-year-old – the only surviving member of the ten-strong terror gang – played a ‘central role’ in the planning and logistics of the shootings and suicide bombings across Paris, which left 130 dead.
It was also revealed yesterday how Abdeslam was 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 Abdeslam’s 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 – shot below the knee during Friday’s raid – was yesterday charged with ‘terrorist murder’ and transferred from hospital to a high-security prison pending extradition to France.
French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve boasted that the arrest of Abdeslam and two other alleged Islamist extremists struck 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 notorious as Europe’s jihadi capital, and which the authorities had promised to search house by house. At one stage, he is thought to have fooled police by hiding in a c cupboard being carried from a flat.
French lawmaker Alain Marsaud said: ‘This escapade is not a success for the Belgian intelligence services. Either Abdeslam is very clever, or the Belgian authorities are stupid, which is more likely.’