Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the 13 November 2015 Paris terror attacks, has claimed that the three co-accused were not in the know about the plot. Abdeslam and 19 other defendants are being tried in connection with the attacks that claimed the lives of at least 130 people.
"They helped me but they knew nothing at all [about the attacks’ plot]," he said, adding, “they are in prison but did nothing”.
On Wednesday, Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the group that carried out the 2015 Paris terror attacks, claimed during the trial that he was "a soldier of Daesh"*.
This combination of photos made in Paris on November 17, 2015 shows four men, two suicide bombers who died during the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks, and two others suspected to be implicated. Clockwise from top left : The attack's suspected mastermind at large, 28-year-old Belgian IS group leading militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud - Suspect at large French national Salah Abdeslam, 26 - French national Bilal Hadfi, 20, one of the suicide bombers who blew himself outside the Stade de France stadium - Samy Amimour, 28, one of the suicide bombers who attacked a Paris concert hall
© AFP 2023 / PHOTO DESK
The 31-year-old is accused of transporting the two terrorists who detonated explosive belts at the Stade de France six years ago. He will reportedly be questioned several times during the trial, which is expected to last about nine months.
November 2015 Paris Terror Attacks
On 13 November 2015, three groups of gunmen and suicide bombers struck almost simultaneously in several parts of Paris, including the Bataclan music hall and the Stade de France national stadium.
The attacks resulted in 130 victims dying and more than 400 being injured. Daesh claimed responsibility for the attacks which prompted French authorities to declare a state of emergency in the country at the time, something that was only lifted in 2017. The perpetrators belonged to a terrorist cell, which had also been involved in the 2016 Brussels bombings that killed at least 32 people and injured 300 more.
2015 saw a spate of terror attacks in France, including the deadly shooting in the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris on 7 January, which killed 12 people and injured 11 others. Charlie Hebdo is notorious for having publishing cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad.
Al-Qaeda* in the Arabian Peninsula took responsibility for the shooting, which was followed by several related attacks in the Ile-de-France region, including the Hypercacher kosher supermarket siege where a terrorist killed four Jewish people.
* Daesh (IS/ISIS/ISIL/"Islamic State") and Al-Qaeda are terrorist organisations banned in Russia and other countries.