This file image taken from video and first released on Wednesday April 13, 2016 shows Salah Abdeslam (left) the fugitive from the Nov. 13 Paris attacks
Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam — Europe’s most wanted fugitive until his capture in Belgium last month — was returned to France yesterday to face justice and is willing to cooperate, his lawyer said.
Abdeslam was appearing before investigating judges in Paris who will decide how to charge him.
The 26-year-old French citizen of Moroccan origin was arrested in March in the Brussels neighborhood where he was raised after four months on the run. Investigators have said he was instrumental in coordinating logistics for the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people at Paris restaurants, a noted music hall and the sports stadium outside the city. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the carnage.
The quick, secret transfer surprised even Abdeslam’s lawyer in France, who rushed from Lille to join his client at the Palace of Justice, arriving in the early afternoon.
Frank Berton, who announced earlier that he would represent Abdeslam, described his client as a young man who is “falling apart” and is ready to cooperate.
“He has things to say,” he told iTele TV. “He wants to explain his route to radicalization.”
However, he said his client doesn’t want to take responsibility for others.
“That means be judged for facts and acts that he committed but not for what he did not commit simply because he is the only survivor of the attacks,” Berton said.
The attacks were carried out by three teams of assailants who blew themselves up or sprayed gunfire and Abdeslam’s testimony will likely prove significant to definitively linking the events that night. His brother was one of the suicide bombers. AP
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