Paris Attacks Suspect Refuses To Speak At Hearing

Paris: On Friday, the man believed to be the sole survivor of the Islamist group that attacked Paris in November 2015 appeared before a French investigating judge, but refused to say anything about the assault in which 130 people were killed.

Salah Abdeslam, a French national born to Moroccan-born parents in Belgium and raised there, was brought under heavily armed escort to a court in central Paris from his solitary-confinement cell in a high-security prison outside the capital. But what was supposed to be the first proper interrogation of the 26-year-old since he was helicoptered to France from Belgium in late April was cut short after he refused to talk.

Frank Berton, his lawyer, said Abdeslam, who was captured in Brussels and extradited to France, was upset about being kept under day-and-night watch inside his cell at Fleury-Merogis prison, south of Paris.

Abdeslam’s refusal to speak was unexpected as his lawyer Berton had said last month he was ready to speak after transfer to France, where he was officially placed under investigation on April 27 on counts of suspected terrorism and murder. Investigators suspect him at least of having played a logistics role in the assault on a football stadium, several cafes and the Bataclan concert hall, where 90 rock fans died. Abdeslam was Europe’s most wanted fugitive until his capture in Brussels on March 18 after a four-month manhunt. He had fled France by car on the night of the attacks, passing through road police checks before his name was circulated as a suspect.

Lawyers representing victims of an attack in which hundreds were also injured voiced frustration but not surprise.