France: The November 13 Trial Continues-Testimony of Last Surviving Terrorist

On Wednesday of this week, the testimony of the principal defendant in the November 13, 2015 terror attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis resumed. This time, Salah Abdeslam claimed that he backed out of the plan to blow himself up with a suicide belt out of humanitarian concerns and only lied to his co-conspirators that the belt was defective. 

The below article from Wednesday’s France 24 is translated by Fousesquawk.

 https://www.france24.com/fr/france/20220413-au-proc%C3%A8s-du-13-novembre-salah-abdeslam-raconte-pour-la-premi%C3%A8re-fois-sa-nuit-d-errance

At the November 13 trial, Salah Abdeslam, for the first time, recounts his night of wandering

Publ. April 13, 2022 22:40

Caption beneath photo:  Courtroom sketch of co-defendant Salah Abdeslam made on April 13, 2022 during the trial of the November 13, 2015 attacks at Paris and Saint. Denis-AFP Benoit Peyrouq

The only survivor of the November 13 commandos, Salah Abdeslam, for the first time, Wednesday, at his trial, has told of his evening in detail. The accused, who had claimed on several occasions, that his belt had not functioned, now maintains that he “renounced” blowing himself up out of “humanity”.

“I am going to explain myself because it’s the last time I would have the chance to do so.” During his final interrogation at the November 13 attacks trial, Salah Abdeslam, for the first time, on Wednesday, April 13, has recounted in detail his version of the events.

The last time, the only surviving member of the commandos had refused to answer questions, invoking his right to do so. “It’s because I didn’t feel I was listened to,” he told the president of the special criminal court in Paris, Jean-Louis Peries.

He “promises nothing” but this time will say much about his “mission”, “the objective” which was assigned to him on November 13, 2015, the night that would produce 130 deaths in Paris and Saint-Denis.

“I go into this cafe (in the 18th arrondissement of Paris), I order a drink, I look at the people around me, and I tell myself, ‘No, I’m not going to do it,” Salah Abdeslam relates over a few minutes, (dressed in) a blue and white-striped polo shirt and a dark vest.  

Return to Belgium or blow himself up

I saw the people laughing, dancing, (and) I understand that I wasn’t going to do it,” the 32-year-old Frenchman adds. After having “backed out”, he got back into the car with which he had transported the three kamikazes to the Stadium of France. “I drive, I drive, I drive,” but then the car “breaks down”.

“With an explosive belt, I am burning up,” Salah Abdeslam continues, very verbose in the dock. “Two solutions offered themselves to me: Either I return to Belgium, or I go all the way and blow myself up.”

He says he wandered around in Paris, called “everybody” to come and get him, but, “it’s totally unexpected,” the “shock”. He then takes a taxi to the south of the capital. He gets rid of the belt at Montrouge and walks to Chatillon, where he will be picked up early in the morning of November 14 by two Belgian “friends”, today his co-defendants.

Salah Abdeslam maintained that he didn’t join the attack plan in Paris until the “last moment”, on November 11, 2015, and that he did not know the details, just that he was to “blow himself up.”

“It’s a shock for me. “I was supposed to leave for Syria, the principal defendant states, behind his black beard. “I would finally agree.”

The (chief judge) Jean-Louis Peries tries to learn more. “I know what I  myself was supposed to do,” the accused maintains. “My brother, (Brahim, future attacker of cafes, Ed.), had a belt, a Kalashnikov, I knew that he was going to shoot, I know that he was going to blow himself up, but I didn’t know the targets.”

“Did you know there were cafes, a concert hall?” the president asks. “No, no,” replies Salah Abdeslam (dismissively).

“I backed out out of humanity, not out of fear”

The court recalls that he told several of his friends he had failed in his mission because the belt had not functioned. 

“That was a lie that I couldn’t rid myself of all during my flight. Then I just accepted it as a reality,” he claims.

To the other members of the jihadist cell, he (was) ashamed to tell the truth. But ” I backed out out of humanity, not out of fear, Salah Abdeslam would later claim.

He “didn’t dare to do it, that’s all,” his boyhood friend, Mohamed Abrini, who believes that the defective belt is “a Hollywood version” of the story, had (testified) before him.

Shortly before 20:00,  Chief Judge Peries turns to the court. “We should perhaps stop here for the evening…”. A big smile from the witness box of Salah Abdeslam: “With me, you never know what to expect. Sometimes, I talk, sometimes I don’t talk…”

The chief judge would suspend the hearing one hour later. The interrogation of Salah Abdeslam will resume Thursday, in the latter part of the afternoon. 

With Agence France Presse