Paris Bombing Suspect Refuses to Cooperate With Investigation
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — Salah Abdeslam, thought to be the only direct participant in the November terrorist attacks in Paris to have survived, refused to answer questions on Friday at a hearing with a French investigative judge in Paris, the prosecutor’s office and his lawyer said. Although the hearing was just the first in what is expected to be a long inquiry, Mr. Abdeslam’s silence highlighted the obstacles facing investigators as they seek information from him about the attacks, which killed 130 people. Mr. Abdeslam, who is suspected of playing a crucial logistical role in the attacks, was arrested in March in Molenbeek, the neighborhood in Brussels where he grew up, and extradited to France in April. His arrest in Belgium on March 18 came just four days before the terrorist attacks in the Brussels Airport and at a metro station. After initially fighting his extradition to France, he reversed himself, and his lawyer, Frank Berton, had said at the time that his client was ready to cooperate with the French authorities. Mr. Berton said, however, that his client was disturbed by video surveillance in his prison cell. Mr. Abdeslam is being held in isolation at the Fleury-Mérogis Prison, about 20 miles south of Paris, and is barred from contact with other inmates. “He can’t stand being watched 24 hours a day,” Mr. Berton told reporters at the main courthouse in central Paris, where Mr. Abdeslam arrived under heavy police escort on Friday morning. “He has the impression that he is being treated completely differently,” from other inmates, Mr. Berton said, suggesting that it helped explain why he did not want to “collaborate with the investigation.” Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, said in a text message that Mr. Abdeslam had “exercised his right to remain silent from the onset” and had refused to answer the questions from the investigative judge. “He also refused to specify the reasons that led him to exercise his right to remain silent in this way,” Ms. Thibault-Lecuivre said, adding that he had even refused to confirm statements previously made to Belgian authorities. She did not indicate whether Mr. Abdeslam would cooperate at a later hearing. No dates have been set for more hearings, she said. French and Belgian investigators have said evidence they found suggests Mr. Abdeslam was heavily involved in preparations for the Paris attacks. He rented cars and at least one safe house, bought material used in explosives and drove across Europe to pick up other suspects. But his exact role on the night of the attacks has not been firmly established. He is suspected of driving three suicide bombers to the Stade de France soccer stadium in St.-Denis, one of the sites that was attacked, but investigators have not determined whether he had intended to carry out another suicide attack. A discarded suicide belt was found in a southern suburb of Paris in the days after the attacks and is thought to have belonged to him. He told Belgian investigators shortly after his arrest on March 18 that he had “backed out” of detonating his suicide vest at the stadium. Mr. Abdeslam has been charged in France with several terrorism-related crimes, including murder connected to terrorism, participation in a terrorist conspiracy and possession of weapons and explosives. |