Paris attacks suspect to fight extradition attempts

BRUGES, Sunday

Paris attacks fugitive Salah Abdeslam woke up behind bars Sunday after spending his first night in jail on charges of “terrorist murder” for his role in orchestrating the worst-ever terror assault on French soil.

Abdeslam, who was caught after being shot in the leg during a Friday police raid in Brussels, told interrogators he had planned to blow himself up at the Stade de France stadium in Paris but had backed out at the last minute.

The 26-year-old spent four months as Europe’s most wanted man for his role in organising the November 13 gun and suicide attacks on the French capital, which killed 130 people.

A day after he was caught, Abdeslam was charged with terrorist murder and participating in a terror group before being taken to a maximum security prison in the north western city of Bruges.

He is being held in the prison’s “individual and special safety” wing which was built in 2008 for people who pose an escape risk or for those with particular behavioural problems, a spokeswoman said.

Although he was cooperating with the authorities, he would fight plans to transfer him to France, his lawyer Sven Mary said.

Mary promised to fight arduously to defend Abdeslam and said he would file a complaint against French prosecutors on Monday for violating the confidentiality of an ongoing investigation.

“Reading out Abdeslam’s deposition during a press conference is a violation” of the law, Mary told Le Soir newspaper on Sunday.

PLANNING NOVEMBER ATTACKS

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins on Saturday told reporters Abdeslam had played a “central role” in planning the November attacks, which targeted bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall and were claimed by the Islamic State group (IS).

His brother Brahim blew himself up in a restaurant in the east of the French capital, and Molins said Abdeslam had planned to do the same at the Stade de France before changing his mind.

Investigators believe Abdeslam rented rooms in the Paris area to be used by the attackers and a car, which he used to drive them to the Stade de France before heading to the 18th arrondissement in the north of the capital. Days after the attacks an explosives-filled suicide vest was found in Paris in an area where mobile phone signals indicated Abdeslam had been.

French President Francois Hollande said shortly after his arrest Friday that he wanted to see Abdeslam transferred to France as quickly as possible to face prosecution.

The French national was “directly linked to the preparation, the organisation and, unfortunately, the perpetration of these attacks,” said Hollande, who was in Brussels for an EU summit when the raid took place.

Abdeslam’s arrest in the gritty Molenbeek neighbourhood of Brussels was hailed by European and US leaders, while French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said it dealt a “major blow” to IS jihadists operating in Europe.

But the minister warned Saturday that the threat level remained “extremely high” and said France was deploying extra police officers to its borders to step up controls following discussions with Interpol.