PARIS – Key defendant in trial in Paris over 2015 attacks said Wednesday that coordinated killings were retaliation for French airstrikes against the Islamic State group, and called the death of 130 innocent people “personal” , as he recognized his role for the first time.
Salah Abdeslam, who was dressed in black and refused to remove his mask while speaking in a custom courtroom, has been silent throughout the investigation. Observers were waiting to see if he would provide details during the trial.
Nine Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers attacked each other in a few minutes in various locations in Paris on November 13, 2015, targeting fans of the national football stadium and coffee attendants and ending with a bloodbath in the Bataclan concert hall. It was the deadliest violence to attack France since World War II and among the worst terrorist attacks to hit the West, shaking the country’s sense of security and rewriting its policy.
Abdeslam is the sole survivor of this cell, most of whose members were French or Belgian. After his suicide vest did not work the night of the attacks, he fled to his hometown, Brussels.
On Wednesday, a screen in the hall showed a photo of the car Abdeslam abandoned in northern Paris after dropping the three suicides at the stadium. Abdeslam’s goal was unclear, but when the Islamic State claimed responsibility the next day, the statement alluded to an attack that never took place in the neighborhood where he left the car.
The two people Abdeslam called to drive all night from Brussels to Paris to pick him up are among the twenty courts. Six of them are on trial in absentia.
Abdeslam, who was arrested months after the attacks, said the killings were a response to French airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. France was part of the international coalition that was formed as extremists conquered vast territory in both countries.
“We fought against France, we attacked France, we aimed at the civilian population. “There was nothing personal against them,” Abdeslam said. “I know my statement can be shocking, but it’s not about deepening the knife into the wound, but being honest with those who suffer immeasurable pain.”
George Salines, whose daughter Lola was among the 90 dead inside the Bataclan, refused to accept Abdeslam’s justification.
“To explain that what we wanted was to go to France and not to individuals, yes, except that they were wounded and dead people, innocent people, voluntary targets. It’s morally unacceptable,” he said.
The same network hit the airport and the Brussels metro system in March 2016 and killed 32 more people. Among those prosecuted in Paris is Mohammed Abrini, who left the city the night before the 2015 attacks and took part in the one in Brussels. He acknowledged a role Wednesday.
“I acknowledge my involvement … (but) in this evil that happened in France, I am neither the commander nor the architect. I did not provide any logistical or financial help,” Abrini said.
The ghost of the man who was the mastermind of the attacks, the late Abdelhamid Abaaoud, appeared in the early days of the trial.
The room saw him in a video escaping the subway. An investigator said he was on the phone to the attackers and someone in Brussels during the attacks.
Anti-terrorist investigators saw Abaaoud in a surveillance video entering the Paris metro with another of the gunmen. They recognized Abaaoud for his fluorescent orange shoes – and it was a key moment in the case.
“As soon as we watch this video, everything changes because we realize that there are still at least two living terrorists,” the researcher stated. His name was not made public, as is usual in French anti-terrorist trials.
Abaaoud and the remaining gunman were killed days later in a police shooting and suicide bombing.
The same investigator also stated the devastation the officials felt as the attacks unfolded.
“The feeling we had that night at the Bataclan was a failure. … I’m not sure we had the means to avoid it all. But when we entered the Bataclan that was the feeling, ”he said.
The trial is expected to last nine months. Abdeslam has already erupted with comments against the group’s treatment in prison and declared his profession as a “fighter for the Islamic State.” But Wednesday’s statements came at the invitation of the presiding judge.
“This court cannot be a platform for his bigotry,” warned Mehana Mouhou, a 70-victim lawyer. “The court cannot be a platform for their propaganda. We have to be very careful.”