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Paris attacks suspect says he chose not to detonate suicide vest

10 February 2022 03:39 (UTC +04:00)

Salah Abdeslam, a self-avowed Islamic State combatant, told a court on Wednesday that he had backed out of detonating his explosive vest during the jihadist rampage across Paris in November 2015 that killed 130 people.

A French national of Moroccan origin, Abdeslam said he had pledged allegiance to Islamic State 48 hours before the Paris attacks, the deadliest in postwar France, but that he had harmed no one.

"I experienced a situation that not many people have experienced, people who took a step back, who changed their minds," Abdeslam, 32, told the court.

"You're there in prison, you say to yourself, 'I should have triggered the thing'. That's what you think when you're in solitary confinement."

Investigators believe Abdeslam is the lone surviving member of the Islamist commando that carried out the synchronised gun and bomb attacks on six restaurants and bars, the Bataclan concert hall and national soccer stadium.