Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam goes on trial over police shootout
Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving suspect in the 2015 Paris attacks, goes on trial over a shootout that led to his capture.
Monday 5 February 2018 08:16, UK
The prime surviving suspect of the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris will go on trial in Belgium today over a shootout with police that led to his arrest.
Salah Abdeslam, 28, has been transferred to a high-security prison close to France's northern border so that he can be taken to the Palace of Justice in Brussels for every day of his four-day trial.
Abdeslam, a French citizen who was born and raised in Brussels, is accused of "attempted murder in a terrorist context" following the shootout, four months after he fled Paris on the night of the co-ordinated terror attacks which killed a total of 130 people.
His brother, Brahim, was one of the Paris suicide bombers who targeted the Bataclan concert hall and Stade de France sports stadium.
Police also believe Abdeslam had connections to three men who blew themselves up at Brussels airport and a metro station, which left 32 people dead, shortly after he was arrested in March 2016.
Abdeslam became Belgium's most wanted man after surveillance footage caught him returning from France after the Paris atrocity. He managed to evade capture for four months.
Four police officers were wounded in the shootout as they tried to arrest Abdeslam and other terrorist suspects in the Forest district of Brussels.
Abdeslam and another suspect escaped but were captured three days later in the Molenbeek neighbourhood.
Abdeslam will face a later trial in France in relation to the Paris attacks.
He is accused of driving three suicide bombers to the Stade de France where the French football team was playing Germany. Police say he told investigators he was going to blow himself up, but changed his mind.
More than 100 police officers are expected to be deployed in and around Brussels' Palace of Justice as security is stepped up in Brussels.
Last month, Belgium lowered its terrorist threat from three to two meaning an attack is now "unlikely".