Trial of the November 13 attacks: Salah Abdeslam, a “big party animal” turned terrorist – LCI

His face like his name, everyone knows them. Of him, however, only a few photos have appeared in the media: that of the unforgettable call for witnesses of Sunday, November 15, 2015, those taken from CCTV cameras before the attacks and at the start of his run after the attacks, or the one revealed. shortly after his arrest by the press, where he appears with a beard and dark circles under his eyes. Some lawyers, magistrates, and journalists also saw him a little over two years ago, on the occasion of his trial in Belgium, where he was appearing for his participation in a shooting with police officers three days before his arrest.

When he arrives in the box, on September 8, a little before 12:30 p.m., the time scheduled for the start of the hearing of the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, all eyes will be on him: Salah Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the jihadist commando des terrasses and the Bataclan, which left 130 dead and nearly 400 wounded on November 13, 2015 in Saint-Denis and Paris.

Arrested on March 18, 2016 in Molenbeek in Belgium after 4 months on the run and thousands of reports, Salah Abdeslam was handed over to France and detained on April 27, 2016. LCI looks back on the course of the one who will be tried alongside 19 other people – including six in their absence – until May 25 before the Special Assize Court of Paris as part of the extraordinary trial of the November 2015 attacks.

Salah Abdeslam, who will be 32 years old one week after the start of the trial was born on September 15, 1989 in Brussels, Belgium. His parents, although both Algerians have dual French and Moroccan nationality. They had five children: four boys and a girl. Salah Abdeslam is the fourth.

The Franco-Moroccan then grew up in Belgium. His mother Yamina describes him as “helpful” with her, “polite to everyone” and like a child “loving school”. After studying electromechanics, Salah Abdeslam was hired at STIB (Société des transports intercommunaux de Bruxelles) where his father worked. Licensed. He will then become the minority partner of Les Béguines café with his brother Brahim.

At the age of about 20, he got into a relationship with a certain Yasmina, from Molenbeek like him and three years his junior. Seeing the call for witnesses on November 16, 2015, the young woman went to the police on her own to talk about her boyfriend, whom she has known since the age of 15. The portrait she then paints of the suspected terrorist has nothing to do with the image investigators have of him after these terrible attacks. Yasmina indeed describes “a great party animal”, “who went out regularly”, “who had girlfriends” and friends that she considers to be “bad Company”.

At the time, Salah Abdeslam spent his time at Béguines, watching TV, playing football or going out. He smokes hash, goes to a nightclub, often sleeps during the day. The mentions began in 2010 to appear in his criminal record. In 2010, he was sentenced to four months of detention in Morocco for violence. In 2011, to one year of suspended imprisonment for an attempted burglary committed in particular with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, his friend and suspected mastermind of the attacks.

Then Yasmina indicates that from the summer of 2015, her companion was away a lot without really giving any explanations. He mentions in particular a stay in the Ardennes with friends in the summer of 2015 but does not give any details. Of her radicalization, she says she saw nothing coming. According to her, Salah prays “but not often at the right time”. And if he often spoke of Syria, she felt that he “did not have the profile of a jihadist”.

Relatives, however, say they have noticed that the Abdeslam brothers enter at this time in a “Islamic State trip”. They stop drinking, are interested in religion. In the bar Les Béguines, we now gather to watch jihadist videos of preaching and“calls to war”. In January 2015, Salah Abdeslam was reported for wanting to leave. In February, he was summoned to the police station to talk about Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who had left for Syria. “A nice guy”, he said, claiming to have lost sight of him.

Then at the end of July-beginning of August, Salah Abdeslam left for Greece without the investigators having been able to determine the reason for this trip. He then traveled to Hungary and Germany in rented vehicles to bring back 12 jihadists who had arrived illegally from Syria.

On September 4, 2015, he bought two detonators in the company Les Magiciens Du Feu specializing in the sale of pyrotechnic products in Saint-Ouen l’Aumône (Val-d’Oise). In November, at the request of his brother Brahim, they rented cars and hotels in preparation for the next attacks. A few days before November 13, he dines one last time with his fiancée, and cries a lot, according to her.

Arrives November 13. Of his day, Salah Abdeslam did not reveal anything. In the evening, around 9 p.m., he was behind the wheel of the Clio with Bilal Hadfi and two Iraqis on board, all three of whom were blown up at the Stade de France. He leaves, safe and sound.

During one of his interrogations, Salah Abdeslam will say that he gave up blowing himself up near the Stade de France, as the sponsors planned. His belt was found in a trash can in Montrouge ten days later. In a writing attributed to him and discovered in a computer also in a trash can in front of the Schaerbeek hideout in Belgium, he explains that he had not taken action because there was “failure” in his belt. “I would have liked to be among the martyrs (…) I would just like for the future to be better equipped”, ensuring you are ready to “finish the job”.

Abdeslam then goes on the run. He spends the night from November 13 to 14 in the stairwell of a building in Chatillon where he eats a “McDonald’s” and talks with young people who do not know anything about this individual.

In the morning Hamza Attou and Mohamed Amri pick him up near his hideout and bring him back to Belgium. Controlled at the toll by gendarmes from Cambrai, the three suspected terrorists will be able to continue their journey without being worried. In the car that will infiltrate him to Belgium on the night of November 13 to 14, he will also mourn a lot the death of his brother suicide bomber. “They will pay … I will take revenge”, will hear his accomplices.

The latter two were arrested in Belgium on November 14. It will take four months to find Salah Abdeslam. He will finally be arrested on March 18, 2016 in Molenbeek, near his parents’ home, in the company of a Tunisian accomplice, Sofien Ayari (also accused in the Paris trial).

Placed in detention in March 2016, Salah Abdeslam was imprisoned at the Bruges remand center in a cell next to those of Mehdi Nemmouche and Mohamed Bakkali (considered to be one of the logisticians of the November 13 commando and accused of having hired cars in preparation for the attacks). During several conversations overheard by prison guards or recorded, the author of the killing at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014, advises Abdeslam to remain silent. What he will do, with a few exceptions, throughout his interrogations (once, facing the examining magistrates, he launched into a religious tirade justifying the attacks).

Handed over to France and detained in Fleury-Mérogis on April 27, 2016, Salah Abdeslam has since been imprisoned there under the regime of solitary confinement, in a cell equipped, a first in France, with a video surveillance device operating 24 hours a day. 24. He is today the most closely watched prisoner in France.

At his trial in Belgium in early 2018, he immediately challenged the legitimacy of his judges, claiming “to place (his) trust in Allah and that is all”. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

During an interrogation in June 2018, he made a spontaneous statement in which he expressed his “disapproval” against the “government that unjustly and coldly murders women and children, whether in the Middle East or Africa “. Addressing Emmanuel Macron, he added: “Your thirst for power and fame pushes you to shed the blood of Muslims and in return you spill the blood of French men and women. Know that creation and command belong only to Allah: that the insecurity will reign in your territory as long as you do not renounce your hostility and your attacks against Muslims. He finally addressed the victims, telling them : “Put your anger aside and reason for a few moments. France did not know this kind of conflict when it was content to sweep the threshold of its door. You only suffer the errors of your leaders for whom you voted”.

His first lawyers ended up giving up representing him, tired of his silence. “He’s a little asshole”, “rather a follower than a leader “, had let go of his former Belgian lawyer, Sven Mary, in 2016. “He has the intelligence of an empty ashtray”, he added. Me Olivia Ronen, 31, has taken over and will defend him throughout his trial. She will be assisted by Martin Vettes, 32, with whom she has already worked on several cases. It remains to be seen whether before the Special Assize Court, Salah Abdeslam, who faces life imprisonment for, in particular, participation in a criminal terrorist association and murders in an organized group in connection with a terrorist enterprise, will be explained … or not.