Belgium returns terrorist behind Bataclan massacre to France

DPA
·2 min read
French forensic experts and police work at the scene of a knife attack at Paris's Gare de Lyon railway station, a major travel hub. Police said that the suspected attacker had been arrested and that the motives behind the attack were unclear. Thomas Samson/AFP/dpa
French forensic experts and police work at the scene of a knife attack at Paris's Gare de Lyon railway station, a major travel hub. Police said that the suspected attacker had been arrested and that the motives behind the attack were unclear. Thomas Samson/AFP/dpa

Salah Abdeslam, who was convicted of carrying out Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, including the notorious attack in 2015 at the Bataclan theatre in Paris that killed 130, will serve his life prison sentence in France.

The Belgian Attorney General's Office announced on Wednesday that he was transferred from a prison in Brussels to the Belgian-French border on Wednesday morning, where he was received by French authorities.

Abdeslam will serve his sentence in the Paris region, France's Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti announced via X.

Abdeslam was sentenced to life imprisonment in France in 2022 for his involvement in the Paris terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015, which included the attack on the Bataclan theatre. Some 350 were injured in the attacks.

He was then extradited to Belgium for trial on murder charges related to the Islamist terrorist attacks in 2016 at the Brussels Airport and a metro station that killed almost three dozen people and injured 340. He was convicted and received further prison time.

Abdeslam had tried several times in the past to prevent his return to a French prison. However, a court rejected his request to remain in a Belgian detention centre. According to the judge in charge, it could not be sufficiently proven that his human rights were being violated in France, as he alleged.

Abdeslam's lawyer Delphine Paci nevertheless criticized the decision on Wednesday as a gross violation of the principles of the rule of law.

Abdeslam is considered the only survivor of the Paris terror squad and a key figure in the attacks. He was only caught in Brussels after months on the run.

A French soldier of the Sentinelle security operation stands guard in front of a security perimeter after a knife attack at Paris's Gare de Lyon railway station, a major travel hub. Police said that the suspected attacker had been arrested and that the motives behind the attack were unclear. Thomas Samson/AFP/dpa
A French soldier of the Sentinelle security operation stands guard in front of a security perimeter after a knife attack at Paris's Gare de Lyon railway station, a major travel hub. Police said that the suspected attacker had been arrested and that the motives behind the attack were unclear. Thomas Samson/AFP/dpa