By Tariq Tahir
THE only surviving terrorist from the gang that killed 130 people in Paris has been found guilty of his role in the bomb and gun rampage.
Salah Abdeslam, 32, admitted to the court he was a “soldier of the Islamic State” but said he pulled out of detonating his own suicide bomb.
The gun and bomb slaughter left 130 people dead[/caption]
But specialist anti-terrorist judges sitting in Paris found Abdeslam guilty of various terror related charges along with 19 other defendants.
They said he was part of the ‘commando unit’ that attacked the Stade de France national sports stadium in Paris, together with six restaurants and bars, and the Bataclan music venue.
He has now been told that he will die in prison for his part in the November 2015 atrocity.
In the absence of the rest of the attackers, the men on trial besides Abdeslam were accused of offering logistical support or plotting other attacks.
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Only 14 out of the 20 appeared in person, with the rest missing, presumed killed fighting for ISIS in Syria or Iraq.
Announcing the verdict, court president Jean-Louis Périès said Abdeslam was “fully integrated into the terrorist cell”.
Abdeslam, a French Moroccan national from Belgium, claimed he deliberately pulled out of the rampage in which other ISIS terrorists including his own brother were blown to pieces.
The former pot-smoking party lover discarded his suicide belt on the night of the attack and fled back to his hometown, Brussels, where many of the extremists lived.
Pleading for leniency this week, he said: “I know that there is still hate for me. I ask you to hate me with moderation.”
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Abdeslam said he had first been told about the plans for the attack by Abdelhamid Abaaoud – the leader of the Isis cell, who died in an explosion afterwards.
He said: “He told me about blowing myself up and it was a shock. I was thinking of going to Syria. I didn’t feel ready.”
He was arrested in March 2016 after a four-month manhunt that ended in a shootout in Brussels.
Days later, suicide bombers alleged to be part of the same cell struck at the city’s airport and on the city Metro, killing 32 and injuring hundreds.
Abdeslam has already been sentenced in Brussels to 20 years in prison for the shootout that accompanied his arrest.
Also facing life in prison was Mohamed Abrini, Abdeslam’s 36-year-old childhood friend, who is believed to have travelled to the Paris region with the attackers.
Abrini was later captured on CCTV with the two Brussels airport bombers and became known as ‘The Man in the Hat’.
Osama Krayem, who has been identified in a notorious ISIS video showing a Jordanian pilot being burned alive, was found guilty of complicity.
The investigation into all those involved in the Paris trial took six years and its written conclusions stretch to 174 feet when lined up.
The mammoth trial – the biggest in French history – began in September.
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Around 450 plaintiffs – wounded victims and relatives of those who died – appeared in court to recount their ordeals.
The Paris attacks trial will “stand as a landmark for justice” said Philippe Duperron, whose son was killed in the Bataclan.
A casualty of the attack being rushed to hospital[/caption]
Floral tributes to the dead at a cafe[/caption]
Category: News, World News, ISIS, Terrorism
