• The trial for the November 13 attacks began on September 8.

    This week, the specially composed assize court must hear the defendants on the course of the evening of the attacks.

  • After six years of silence, Salah Abdeslam had agreed to explain himself little by little over the course of his interrogations.

  • This Wednesday, however, the accused surprised the specially composed Assize Court by asserting his right to silence and refusing to explain the precise course of November 13, 2015.

At the specially composed Court of Assizes of Paris,

“Mr. President, I wish to exercise my right to silence today.

A dramatic twist at the trial of the November 13 attacks.

While Salah Abdeslam was to be questioned at length on Wednesday and Thursday about his role in the commandos, the accused, dressed all in black, immediately indicated that he would not answer any questions.

If it is his strictest right, this decision surprised the court as well as the civil parties, who came in large numbers to attend this hearing, one of the most anticipated of these nine months of trial.

After being silent throughout the investigation, the “tenth man” of the attacks seemed to have come out of his silence, however, sometimes even speaking inadvertently.

This time, it won't.

“You know it can be dangerous, insists the president to convince him to cooperate.

There is a risk, in the face of non-responses, of retaining some which may be unfavorable to you.

Salah Abdeslam, straight as an "i", hands joined in the box, maintains his position.

He will not cooperate, he who was so expected on his version of the facts and his role that night.

“I made an effort, I kept silent for six years, it was not an easy thing.

It was the position that I wanted to keep at the start of the trial but I changed my mind, I gave explanations.

I also spoke to the victims, with respect, I have nothing more to give now, ”he justifies, before asking permission to sit down to listen to the president shell out his questions.

"Did you give up or the belt didn't work?"

»

What target was assigned to him that night?

The Stade de France or the 18th arrondissement, where an attack not perpetrated has been claimed?

Shortly after his arrest, in Belgium, Salah Abdeslam had assured that he was initially supposed to blow himself up at the Stade de France but had given up.

The investigations made it possible to demonstrate that he had indeed led the three terrorists to Saint-Denis before taking the path north of Paris.

And above all, and this is probably one of the central questions of the trial, did he really give up blowing himself up, as he suggested during his hearing in February, or the vest explosive defective, as he told other members of the terrorist cell?

“Why, if you have given up activating your belt at the Stade de France, are you going to the center of Paris when you are already in the north of the Paris region, which is easier to return to Belgium?

“, insists the president.

Silence.

“What are you going to do in the 18th?

» Silence.

"Did you give up or the belt didn't work?"

Salah Abdeslam stares straight ahead, expressionless.

He will not react more when one of the three representatives of the public ministry, Nicolas Le Bris, will deplore his attitude.

“This silence confirms that cowardice is the hallmark of terrorists.

There really isn't an ounce of courage in you,” he concludes.

“That's when everything will change for me.

»

It will take almost two hours and the questions of one of the lawyers for the civil parties, Me Claire Josserand-Schmidt, for Salah Abdeslam to come out of his silence.

Already during the last two interrogations, the lawyer seemed to have succeeded in gaining his trust and managed to gently push him to his limits.

"I'm still going to answer a few questions because I promised you," said the only surviving member of the commando to everyone's surprise.

On his fiancée, first, and this famous meal, November 10, where she sees him in tears.

“Me, at that time, I knew that I was going to go to Syria, that was what I had been offered,” he says.

At this point, “So you're not in the mood to wear an explosive belt?

“, resumes the lawyer.

" Exactly ".

According to him, it was the next day, during a return trip to France, that his brother Brahim informed him of the planned attacks.

“That's when everything will change for me.

It is November 11, two days before the attacks.

His speech more or less repeats the words of Mohamed Abrini the day before.

On Tuesday, the latter assured that it was because of his renunciation of being part of the commandos that Salah Abdeslam joined them at the last moment, inheriting his vest and his explosive belt.

“But I was not at the end, continues Salah Abdeslam in front of a room hanging on his lips.

I gave up activating my belt, not out of cowardice, not out of fear.

I did not want to.

The lawyer continues her questions.

Why then,

telling the other members of the cell that this belt hadn't worked?

" The truth ?

I was ashamed of not having gone all the way.

I was afraid of other people's eyes.

»

Our trial file

A version weakened by the hearing of the expert responsible for analyzing his explosive belt.

The machine, discovered a week later, was, according to him, not functional.

Not only because the push button and the battery were missing, but also because the igniter was defective.

Resuming the floor briefly, the accused affirmed that he himself had removed these elements to avoid an accident.

"The day I gave up this belt, I put it in a place where there is little chance that it will be found, manipulated," he said.

Faced with the president's skepticism, Salah Abdeslam is annoyed, as if upset that his version of the facts could be called into question: "That's why I didn't want to answer".

Justice

Attentats du 13-Novembre : Au 101e jour du procès, les accusés appelés à s’expliquer sur cette nuit d’horreur

Justice

Procès des attentats du 13-Novembre : « Moi, je balance pas… » Provocateur et évasif, Salah Abdeslam précipite la fin de son interrogatoire

  • Attentats du 13-Novembre
  • Attaques terroristes à Paris
  • Salah Abdeslam
  • Terrorisme
  • Procès
  • Bataclan
  • Daesh
  • Justice
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