The only suspect alive in the bloody attacks in Paris in November 2015, Salah Abdeslam, testified at his trial that he had not killed or injured anyone at all. The 32-year-old Frenchman has been given the floor for the first time in the trial that started in September.
He stressed that he supported the Islamic State terrorist group but denied his alleged role as a terrorist. Instead, he said in this affair “to be vilified continuously”.
A group of terrorists carried out several attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis on November 13, 2015. 130 people were killed, including in the Bataclan concert hall. Abdeslam lived in Belgium, where he was arrested in March 2016 after a shooting in Forest. Belgium extradited him to France that same year.
The prosecutors believe that Abdeslam participated in the preparations for the attacks in Paris and also took part in them. The fact that he survived as the only terrorist would not have been the original intention of the attackers.
He would have refrained from blowing himself up at the last minute at the Stade de France (Saint-Denis), or the bomb belt would have malfunctioned.