On the first day of the November 2015 Paris attacks trial, one of the main suspects spoke briefly. Salah Abdeslam called himself “an Islamic State soldier” when the judge asked him about his profession. When asked about his identity, Abdeslam, dressed in black, replied that “there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger”.
“That was hard on relatives in court,” says correspondent Frank Renout. A lawyer for eight survivors of the attack in the Le Bataclan concert hall even called Abdeslam’s words “extremely violent” and “a new threat” to his clients.
Police extra alert
There are twenty suspects who have to answer. All are accused of participating in a terrorist organization and complicity in the attacks. There were ten perpetratorsAt the time, nine of them were killed by police bullets or by blowing themselves up. Abdeslam was the only one to escape and fled to Belgium. He was arrested there in March 2016.
The case is in a specially converted court in Paris. There and in other parts of France, the police are extra alert. There is a fear among French intelligence services that new attacks will be committed during the trial.
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