While the trial of the November 13 attacks has been held for five months before the special assize court in Paris, franceinfo has obtained Salah Abdeslam’s psychiatric expert report. The document has only just been placed in the file because, during the six years of investigation, the main defendant had always refused to lend himself to such an expertise.
When he received psychiatric experts in November, in the middle of a trial, in Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne) where he is imprisoned, the only member of the November 13 commandos still alive warned: this meeting would be the only one. This expertise took place after the parade at the bar for five weeks of survivors and mourners of the attacks. In their report, the experts describe a Salah Abdeslam “modest” and “holding back his emotions”. He nevertheless confided to the psychiatrists that “These testimonies were not pleasant to hear”. He even says he was “Brand” and particularly “touch” by the tears of a mother who lost her son on a terrace.
Like any accused heard in the context of a psychiatric expertise, Salah Abdeslam was invited to speak about his childhood. He describes himself as “a child cherished by his parents and loving”. The main defendant in the trial of the November 13 attacks also says he was raised in kindness and tolerance. “War is not inherently beautiful”he says.
He says he doesn’t have “never” wanted to hurt anyone but, again, justifies his actions: “In times of war, you have to choose sides.” His was that of the Islamic State group. The violence of Daesh in Europe was aimed solely at “to put an end to the violence of France in the Levant”he argues.
If Salah Abdeslam agreed to submit to a psychiatric expertise, he however refused to speak about the facts themselves, his participation in the preparation of the attacks and his attitude on November 13, 2015 at the time of the attacks. He talks about today, before the attacks but says nothing about the facts, in particular about his explosive belt which we do not know if it was defective or if he did not trigger it.
In his life, experts note a break in 2010. He was sentenced to one month in prison after an attempted burglary. “It devastates [ses] parents”, he tells psychiatrists. On leaving, he lost his job as a tram repairer in Brussels and began to take an interest in international news: Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria… It was at this time that the flip occurs. He thinks of a humanitarian commitment then finally becomes a soldier of the Islamic State group. He still presents himself as such today.
His personality, write the specialists, is locked in the “radical breviary” of Daesh. Salah Abdeslam endorses all the propaganda of the terrorist group, word for word, “like a parrot”. He glorifies the martyrs: “Dying in battle for the cause of God is one of the best things that can happen”he assures.
Asked about potential psychiatric pathologies or disorders that could affect his discernment, psychiatrists describe Salah Abdeslam as “a ordinary human without mental pathology” and “without psychosis” therefore fully criminally responsible. However, it is also mentioned that it is “engaged in totalitarian dehumanization”.
The experts also had to appreciate Salah Abdeslam’s development prospects. They explain that “his previous personality is not completely buried” and that it can therefore evolve: either by strengthening “this borrowed personality, like a shell used to protect itself”, say the doctors; either the fortress will be damaged and it will return to Salah Abdeslam before. In this case, there will be serious risks of collapse and suicidal tendencies. It is also because of this fear that “Salah Abdeslam makes it clear that he has no choice but to cling to everything that legitimized his commitment”, explains the doctors. According to them, “the simple fact that he is aware of it and that he can formulate it, testifies to the existence of an internal debate, at least in germ”.
According to the experts, this will also be one of the issues in this trial. Salah Abdeslam himself explained during the interview to fight not to fall into depression in prison. He is in strict isolation, permanently filmed. A few years ago, he had paranoid obsessions, fearing that he would be poisoned. Today, he is better and – guessing a very heavy sentence to come – he repeats that he never injured or killed anyone. Salah Abdeslam has not given up on any life project: he still hopes to get married and have children.