Trial of the attacks in Brussels: Salah Abdeslam incarcerated “in a prison in the Paris region”, announces Dupond-Moretti
Salah Abdeslam, sentenced to irreducible life imprisonment for his participation in the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris and transferred this Wednesday morning from Belgium to France, “has just been incarcerated in a prison in the Paris region”, indicated this Wednesday the French Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti.
Published on 02/07/2024 at 2:30 p.m.
“In accordance with the decision of the French courts and the wishes of victims’ associations, he will serve his irreducible life sentence there,” added the French Minister of Justice on X.
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“Salah Abdeslam left Haren prison this morning to be taken to the border where he was taken care of by the French authorities,” the federal prosecutor’s office confirmed shortly after.
Since his arrest on March 18, 2016 in Molenbeek, the jihadist has spent the majority of his detention in France. In July 2022, after the end of the trial in Paris for November 13, he was the subject of a “temporary handover” to Belgium, while the trial of the Brussels attacks was completed.
During his trial, Salah Abdeslam expressed his desire to serve his sentence in Belgium. He has French nationality due to the immigration background of his parents (a couple of Algerian-Moroccan origin) but he was born and raised in Brussels, and his relatives live there.
In October 2023, the Brussels Court of Appeal, seized by its lawyers, had “temporarily suspended” the transfer of Salah Abdeslam to France, where the jihadist is supposed to serve his sentence for the attacks of November 13, 2015.
For Me Paci, the transfer to France which took place on Wednesday reflects “a kind of desire for absolute revenge which takes precedence over respect for the law”. “There was clearly an agreement between the Belgian state and the French state to violate a court decision,” the lawyer told AFP.
“It’s quite simply a kidnapping, carried out in collaboration with the federal prosecutor’s office,” asserted his colleague Michel Bouchat, also Salah Abdeslam’s lawyer, to the Belga agency.
For the federal prosecutor’s office, on the contrary, Salah Abdeslam’s return to France at the end of the criminal proceedings was “legally irrevocable”.
He further emphasizes that “in the absence of rapid repatriation”, Belgium “would potentially have found itself shortly without a legal title” allowing it to be kept in detention.
“His release was of course not a feasible option,” adds the federal prosecutor.
In principle, a hearing was scheduled for February 12 concerning the possible return of Salah Abdeslam to France. It remains to be seen whether it will be maintained. “Currently, it is still fixed. Pleadings are planned,” confirms Me Bouchat.
France had in fact filed a third-party appeal against the judgment of the Brussels Court of Appeal, rendered on October 3 in summary proceedings, temporarily prohibiting the return of Salah Abdeslam to France.
