23-11-2024 04:11 PM Jerusalem Timing

Abdelsalam Offers to ’Cooperate’ with French Authorities

Abdelsalam Offers to ’Cooperate’ with French Authorities

Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam wants to cooperate with French authorities, his lawyer said Thursday, confirming that his client wanted to be extradited from Belgium to France.

AbdelsalamParis attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam wants to cooperate with French authorities, his lawyer said Thursday, confirming that his client wanted to be extradited from Belgium to France.

A prosecutor was set to travel to the prison in the city of Bruges where Abdeslam is being held to discuss his extradition under a European arrest warrant.

"He wants to cooperate with the French authorities," lawyer Cedric Moisse said.

Abdeslam has not spoken to investigators since Brussels was hit last week by attacks at the airport and a metro station that were claimed by the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri group.

He has links to several of those involved in the suicide bombings that killed 32 people.

Known as Europe's most wanted man, the 26-year-old was captured on March 18 in Brussels after spending four months on the run following the November suicide bombings and gun attacks in Paris which left 130 people dead.

He is believed to be the last survivor from the cell of 10 men who carried out the massacre.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said that Abdeslam had also been planning to target Brussels.

Abdeslam has been linked to at least two of the bombers. Khalid El Bakraoui, who blew himself up at the metro, rented a flat in Brussels where Abdeslam's fingerprints were found following a raid. The second airport bomber, Najim Laachraoui, once drove to Hungary with Abdeslam.