Belgian justice temporarily prohibits the transfer of Salah Abdeslam to France

The Brussels Court of Appeal considers that his return “risks leading to a violation” of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly in relation to respect for his private and family life.

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Salah Abdeslam before the Brussels Assize Court on December 6, 2022. (JONATHAN DE CESARE / BELGA / POOL / AFP)

Salah Abdeslam will not be reincarcerated in France anytime soon. On Tuesday, October 3, the Brussels Court of Appeal banned his transfer to a French prison, where the 34-year-old jihadist must serve his irreducible life sentence, for his participation in the attacks of November 13, 2015.

Since July 2022, Salah Abdeslam has been the subject of a “temporary discount” to Belgium, while the trial of the attacks of March 2016, which left 35 dead, takes place in Brussels. In September, the jihadist was definitively condemned by the Belgian courts for “assassinations in a terrorist context”.

Salah Abdeslam’s lawyers argued against returning to France, arguing that their client was born and raised in Brussels and that he has family ties in the country. In its judgment, the Belgian Court of Appeal specifies that the transfer of the jihadist to France “risks leading to a violation” of several articles “of the European Convention on Human Rights”. These articles mention the prohibition of subjecting a detained person to “inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment” as well as the right of everyone to “respect for (one’s) private and family life”.


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