The alleged terrorist claimed his innocence, despite reiterating his loyalty to the Islamic State
Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the commandos of the terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris and Saint-Denis, confirmed this Wednesday before the judge that he repented at the last moment and decided not to activate his explosives belt. “When you’re in isolation, you really ask yourself: was I right to back down or should I have gone all the way? It is said he should have activated that thing,’ Abdeslam said referring to the explosive belt he was wearing that night and which he threw into a wastebasket.
The alleged terrorist claimed his innocence, despite reiterating his loyalty to the Islamic State. “I have not killed or injured anyone, not even a scratch,” said Abdeslam, during his first interrogation at the Paris Court that has been judging this case since September. Abdeslam, 32, is accused of belonging to the command that carried out a series of coordinated terrorist attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, on several terraces of Parisian bars and restaurants and in the vicinity of the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. The attacks left 130 dead and 350 wounded.
The jihadist believes that “the extremely severe penalties” that the courts usually impose on terrorists do not have the deterrent effect that they initially seek. «In the future when an individual gets on a subway or a bus with a suitcase of 50 kilos of explosives and at the last moment says ‘I’m going to back out’, he will know that he has no right, that, otherwise, he will they will lock him up or kill him,” Abdeslam added.
The next interrogations will serve to try to clarify the exact role that Abdeslam had in the attacks. The alleged terrorist, who could be sentenced to life in prison if he is found guilty, was arrested in Belgium on March 18, 2016 and was extradited in France a month later. Abdeslam is imprisoned, under strong security measures, in the French prison of Fleury-Merogis, south of Paris, awaiting his sentence.
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