November 13 trial: Mohamed Abrini admits that he had to be part of the commandos

Gwladys Laffitte 6:30 a.m., March 23, 2022

Mohamed Abrini, one of the main defendants in the trial of the November 13, 2015 attacks, confessed before the Assize Court.

Contrary to what he has always said, the relative of Salah Abdeslam admitted that he was well "planned" in the staff of the commandos of the attacks of Paris and Saint-Denis, in 2015.

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"We are moving fast"

Was Mohamed Abrini therefore an eleventh man, did he give up and why?

He won't say more until next week, he promises.

A long silence hovers in the room, then is finally interrupted by her lawyer: "We are moving forward, that's good, we are moving forward even quickly," she told the judges. 

Indeed, because until now Mohamed Abrini, childhood friend of Salah Abdeslam, had always affirmed that he was not supposed to be part of the commandos of November 13, in particular to justify his departure from Paris the night of November 12 to 13. 2015. However, one of the terrorists changes hideout after his departure, to compensate for this abandonment, according to the prosecution.

Argument that Mohamed Abrini had so far always disputed.

A relative of Abdelhamid Abaaoud

Far from the eruptive Mohamed Abrini that we have seen, the man appeared more tired yesterday, and this is perhaps the cause of this other revelation: he met Abdelhamid Abaaoud in a Belgian hideout at the end of August 2015. Never the investigators had failed to find out what the coordinator of the attacks had done since his return from Syria in the middle of the summer, in the company of the Thalys terrorist.

On the other hand, the accused assures him: he did not know the details of his friend's terrorist project.