At the trial of the November 13, 2015 attacks, Salah Abdeslam, the main defendant, said on Wednesday March 13 that he entered a café in Paris on the evening of the attacks with his explosive belt and “gave up” trying to blow himself up.
” I’m going to walk into this cafe, I’m going to order a drink, I’m going to look at the people around me and I thought to myself ‘No, I’m not going to do it,'” said the only surviving member of the jihadist commandos that killed 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis, near Paris, during his last interrogation before the special assize court. from Paris.
The 32-year-old Frenchman had exercised his right to silence during his previous interrogation on March 30, explaining on Wednesday that he had not ” felt listened to “. ” I’m going back, I’ll explain myself because it’s the last time I’ll have the opportunity to do so “, he said. In the room, his announcement was greeted with sighs of relief. ” Everyone here needs my answers. I don’t promise anything, I’ll do my best said Salah Abdeslam.
” When he told me ‘You’re going to blow yourself up’it is a shock for »
He began by explaining that he had been made aware of the planned attacks by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the operational leader of these jihadist attacks, on November 11, 2015. He gon’ tell me the plan, not the targets, but tell me gon’ have to wear an explosive belt and blow me up “, he detailed standing in the box. ” Me, I had to go to Syriaassured Salah Abdeslam. When he told me ‘You’re going to blow yourself up’it’s a shock to me. » « I will end up accepting “, he continued.
On the evening of November 13, 2015, ” I’m going to go out and I’m going to go to the goal that has been set for me “, a bar in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, commented the main defendant. After having ” renounced “, he has ” took the car back “with which he had conveyed the three suicide bombers to the Stade de France, north of Paris, but this one” broke down “, he said.
He then spent several hours in Paris and its inner suburbs, before two friends came to pick him up and bring back to Brusselswhere he will be arrested four months later, on March 18, 2016.
(With AFP)
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