Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor from a group of terrorists who left 130 dead in one bloody November night in Paris, has arrived in Paris to face legal proceedings following his extradition from Belgium.
The French prosecutor’s office said Abdeslam arrived in France at 9:05 am (0705 GMT) on Wednesday.
According to a French state prosecutor, Abdeslam, who for months was the most-wanted man in Europe after he escaped arrest after the Paris attacks, was detained by Belgian authorities on March 18.
He said that his brother, Brahim, was one of the men who blew themselves up on November 13 in a series of orchestrated attacks against cafes, a football stadium and a concert hall.
Meanwhile, Frank Berton, Abdeslam’s French lawyer, said that he had visited his client in detention in Belgium.
He said that he found his client to be a “shattered” young man.
Berton said that Abdeslam told him that he wanted to participate in the judicial process because he “has things to say’’.
The lawyer said that he wanted to explain his path to radicalisation and to explain his participation in the act.
French Justice Minister, Jean-Jacques Urvoas, said that preparations were under way to hold Abdeslam in isolation and under surveillance in a high-security detention centre near the French capital.
He disclosed that Belgian prosecutors agreed last month to the French extradition request for Abdeslam, but decided to question him first in relation to a shoot-out with police in a Brussels neighbourhood days before his arrest.
He has been charged with attempted murder in relation to that incident.
Urvoas said that Abdeslam had also been linked to several of the perpetrators in the Brussels terrorist attacks, but had not been charged in relation to those events.
Paris attack suspect Abdeslam extradited from Belgium to France
