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| Salah Abdeslam, Suspect in Paris Attacks, Seeks Extradition to France | Salah Abdeslam, Suspect in Paris Attacks, Seeks Extradition to France |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| BRUSSELS — Salah Abdeslam, who was captured on Friday in Brussels and charged with terrorist murder over the Paris attacks in November, wants to be extradited to France, his lawyer said on Thursday. | |
| Mr. Abdeslam “wants to leave for France as quickly as possible,” the lawyer, Sven Mary, told reporters Thursday morning after a court hearing in Brussels. | Mr. Abdeslam “wants to leave for France as quickly as possible,” the lawyer, Sven Mary, told reporters Thursday morning after a court hearing in Brussels. |
| The decision by Mr. Abdeslam, 26, to accept extradition was a reversal of his position. He was Europe’s most wanted man until he was arrested on Friday in a raid in Molenbeek, the Brussels neighborhood where he grew up. He appears to be a crucial link between the Paris attacks and those that struck Brussels on Tuesday, killing at least 31 people and wounding about 300 others. | |
| Both series of assaults were carried out by militants of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. | |
| After Mr. Abdeslam’s arrest, Mr. Mary had said his client intended to resist extradition to France. | After Mr. Abdeslam’s arrest, Mr. Mary had said his client intended to resist extradition to France. |
| Asked why Mr. Abdeslam had changed his mind, Mr. Mary said that his client understood that “the case here is just a small piece,” and that he wanted to “explain himself in France.” | Asked why Mr. Abdeslam had changed his mind, Mr. Mary said that his client understood that “the case here is just a small piece,” and that he wanted to “explain himself in France.” |
| Mr. Abdeslam has not spoken to investigators since the bombings in Brussels. | Mr. Abdeslam has not spoken to investigators since the bombings in Brussels. |
| Asked what his client had said about the attacks, Mr. Mary replied, “He didn’t say, because he didn’t know it.” Asked if Mr. Abdeslam had reacted to the attacks, Mr. Mary responded, “He had no reaction.” | Asked what his client had said about the attacks, Mr. Mary replied, “He didn’t say, because he didn’t know it.” Asked if Mr. Abdeslam had reacted to the attacks, Mr. Mary responded, “He had no reaction.” |
| Belgian authorities are continuing to search for suspects in the Brussels attacks, and officials are scrambling to figure out what happened and why potential clues may have been missed. The Belgian interior minister, Jan Jambon, and the justice minister, Koen Geens, have offered to resign their posts, their spokesmen said, but Prime Minister Charles Michel has refused. | |
| The federal prosecutor in Belgium said on Thursday that a day earlier, investigators had searched the homes of the brothers who carried out the bombings in Brussels. He also said that an arrest warrant had been issued for one of the brothers, Khalid el-Bakraoui, on Dec. 11, 2015, by the judge investigating the Paris attacks. | |
| Khalid el-Bakraoui’s brother, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, was identified as a “foreign terrorist fighter” by the Turkish government last June, according to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey. | |
| “Despite our warnings that this person was a foreign terrorist fighter,” Mr. Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish capital, on Wednesday, “the Belgian authorities could not identify a link to terrorism.” | |
| It is becoming clear that there was evidence linking the brothers to Mr. Abdeslam and to the Paris attackers, and probably to the Islamic State. | |
| “I wouldn’t want him to clam up,” Mr. Mary said. “His clamming up would make us face other Zaventems and other Bataclans,” he said, referring to the Belgian airport that was bombed and to the Paris concert hall where 90 people were killed by gunmen on Nov. 13. | |
| Mr. Abdeslam and two others — Abid Aberkan, a relative who is accused of having sheltered him; and a man who is suspected of being an accomplice and whose identity is unclear — appeared in a Brussels court Thursday morning, but the hearing was postponed to April 7 at the request of their lawyers. | Mr. Abdeslam and two others — Abid Aberkan, a relative who is accused of having sheltered him; and a man who is suspected of being an accomplice and whose identity is unclear — appeared in a Brussels court Thursday morning, but the hearing was postponed to April 7 at the request of their lawyers. |
| The man who is suspected of being an accomplice has used various aliases, including Amine Choukri, Monir Ahmed Alaaj and Soufien Ayari. He was arrested with Mr. Abdeslam last Friday in Molenbeek. | The man who is suspected of being an accomplice has used various aliases, including Amine Choukri, Monir Ahmed Alaaj and Soufien Ayari. He was arrested with Mr. Abdeslam last Friday in Molenbeek. |
| Mr. Abdeslam’s arrest appeared to have set off an anxious response by Ibrahim el-Bakraoui. | |
| In a statement found on a computer that was discarded in a trash can, Mr. Bakraoui wrote that he was wanted, felt unsafe, did not know what to do and feared that if he dallied, he risked ending up “next to him in a cell,” the Belgian federal prosecutor, Frédéric Van Leeuw, said on Wednesday. | In a statement found on a computer that was discarded in a trash can, Mr. Bakraoui wrote that he was wanted, felt unsafe, did not know what to do and feared that if he dallied, he risked ending up “next to him in a cell,” the Belgian federal prosecutor, Frédéric Van Leeuw, said on Wednesday. |
| He did not specify whether “him” referred to Mr. Abdeslam. | He did not specify whether “him” referred to Mr. Abdeslam. |