This Wednesday, March 30, 2022, the hearings resumed concerning the trial of the attacks that hit Paris on November 13, 2015. After exercising his “right to silence”, the main defendant in the trial of the November 13 attacks, Salah Abdeslam decided to break the silence briefly. Dressed all in black, he first declares: “Hello everyone, hello Mr. President, today I would like to use my right to silence…”. “It can be dangerousthen intervenes the president. Faced with non-responses, we risk finding some that may not be favorable to you… Especially since here, we are coming to November 13, we had explanations from Mohamed Abrini yesterday, which in my opinion were not unfavorable to you, so I do not quite understand.’, he continues.
Salah Abdeslam accepts an exchange with the lawyer for the civil parties
Salah Abdeslam will therefore change his tune to finally address the court. 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 my belt on, not out of cowardice, not out of fear, but I didn’t want to, that’s all”, he said in response to questions from a lawyer for the civil parties. The lawyer Me Josserand-Schmidt also asked him why he had said 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”, he replied. “The day I gave up this belt, I put it in a place where there is little chance that it will be found, manipulated by someone. I removed the push button and a wire because these are the elements that allow the belt to be triggered. Anyone could pass or even a child, that’s why I removed the push button and the battery“, he then explained.
Thibaud Cruz
See also: These stars pay tribute to the victims of the attacks of November 13