after exercising his “right to silence”, Salah Abdeslam reaffirms that he “gave up” killing on the evening of the attacks

Turnaround during the hearing. After deciding to exercise his “right to silence”, Salah Abdeslam, the main defendant in the trial of the November 13 attacks, spoke briefly before the special assize court on Wednesday March 30. He reaffirmed that he had “renounced” to use his explosive belt on the evening of the attacks.

“I didn’t go all the way, I gave up on putting on my belt, not out of cowardice, not out of fear, but I didn’t want to, that’s all”, said Salah Abdeslam in response to questions from a lawyer for the civil parties. The lawyer Me Josserand-Schmidt also asked him why he had declared on his return from Belgium that the belt had not worked. “I was ashamed of not having gone all the way and I was afraid of how other people would look and I was 25 too, I was ashamed”