Salah Abdeslam, a prime suspect in the November massacre in Paris, has been formally charged with terrorist murder, the Belgian prosecutor announced. Abdeslam, detained in Brussels on Friday, is cooperating with authorities, his lawyer said.

“He is cooperating with Belgian justice,” the suspect’s lawyer, Sven Mary told the media in Brussels on Saturday, Reuters reported.


Comment: Here’s what Salah, who is accused of transporting others to the attacks and buying materials used to make the explosives, reportedly had to say:

“Salah Abdeslam today during questioning by investigators affirmed that, and I quote, ‘he wanted to blow himself up at the Stade de France and that he had backed down‘,” Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters on Saturday, but added that the suspect’s initial statements should be treated with caution, Reuters reported.

… While his brother Brahim was one of the suicide bombers in the attacks, Salah Abdeslam is thought to have been wearing an explosives belt too. It was later found dumped in a bin in a suburb south of Paris.

Abdeslam’s lawyer confirmed France is asking for his defendant’s extradition, but said, “we will refuse the extradition.”

Since November 13 last year, when 130 people were killed in a series of shootings and suicide attacks in the French capital, Salah Abdeslam has been Europe’s most wanted man. He was captured in the Belgian capital on Friday. During the police assault, Abdeslam was shot in the leg, but appeared to have sustained only a slight injury and was released from a local hospital early on Saturday.

Formally charged with involvement in terrorist murder, Abdeslam is being questioned by police in Belgium. French authorities have launched a fast-track appeal to have him extradited, following a request from French President Francois Hollande.

“I am sure the French legal authorities will very quickly issue an extradition request… and the Belgian authorities will respond as favorably as possible, as quickly as possible,” Hollande said on Saturday, after an emergency defense council meeting of ministers at the Elysee Palace had been called.

During the Friday raid in Brussels that led to Abdeslam’s capture, several others were detained. Monir Ahmed Alaaj alias Amine Choukri (with both names appearing on fake documents, according to investigators) was also charged with terrorist murder involvement, while a third man named Abid A., was charged with being a member of a terrorist organization and aiding and abetting criminals, Reuters reported citing Belgian prosecutors.

Two women also detained during the operation have been released, authorities added, saying that one of them was charged with aiding and abetting, while the second woman was released without charge.

“This operation has removed the threat of several individuals who have proven themselves extremely dangerous and totally determined,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after the Elysee emergency meeting, adding that the arrest was “an important blow” against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Europe.

Salah Abdeslam’s arrest could encourage his accomplices to flee Europe, Interpol warned on Saturday, saying it has issued an advisory to member states to heighten control at the borders.

“Anyone linked to Abdeslam will be concerned that their location could be revealed and attempt to run to try and avoid detection,” Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock said, as quoted by Reuters. “It is now vital that countries continue to cooperate and make thorough checks against the information available to them to avoid suspects slipping through the net,” he added.

The raid leading to the arrest of the 26-year-old key suspect in the Paris attacks came shortly after Belgian authorities said his fingerprints had been detected in an apartment raided earlier in a Brussels neighborhood. In that raid, Abdeslam’s suspected accomplice was killed, while another two men escaped, one of whom later appeared to have been Abdeslam.


Comment: Based on the statements from Belgium authorities, it looks like a ‘routine’ raid was carried out. In the process, they found Salah’s prints and DNA. It was only after that, apparently, that they caught Salah (alleged video of the arrest here: his face cannot be clearly identified), realizing he had been at that very apartment. But the exact sequence of events is still kind of murky. More details:

The operation unfolded in Four Winds street, located just around the corner from Delaunoystraat, where Abdeslam is thought to have slipped away three days after the Paris attacks.

According to HLN, police could be heard shouting “Come out with your hands up in the air” during the raid.

Smoke was seen on the street, and is believed to be from a stun grenade, according to HLN. Several blasts were heard closer to the end of the tense stand-off.

In total police said they raided three separate properties.

It comes just two days after it was revealed that authorities found an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) flag at the home of an Algerian-born gunman shot in a Brussels raid earlier this week.

That man was identified on Friday as Mohamed Belkaid, who used the name Samir Bouzid, RTBF news reported. He is believed to have been responsible for plotting the November 13 terror attacks in Paris.

The man could be “a huge treasure-trove of amazing information that could stop future attacks,” former MI5 intelligence officer Annie Machon told RT, but added that the enormous amount of data gathered by intelligence agencies might have interfered with an earlier arrest.


Comment: Yes, like who his handlers were.

“Either Abdeslam has been completely off-grid, not using any form of communications whatsoever, which is why he has been able to remain under the radar of a very intensive dragnet surveillance these days, or they have been missing him in the avalanche of information that is coming through this global surveillance network,” the former MI5 agent said.

In the IS-orchestrated massacre, the Belgian-born French national is believed to have driven a rental car discovered near the Bataclan concert hall – the scene of a horrific hostage siege. While his brother Brahim was one of the suicide bombers in the attacks, Salah Abdeslam is thought to have been wearing an explosives belt too. It was later found dumped in a bin in a suburb south of Paris.

Following the attacks, a state of emergency was introduced in the French capital. In February, it was extended by parliament to May 26. The measure, criticized by a number of rights groups, expands police powers, allowing the authorities to carry out searches and to restrict the movement of people and vehicles at specific times and locations.


Comment: Hollande predictably hyped the ISIS threat out of proportion:

Following the capture of the key surviving suspect in the November 13 Paris attacks, the French president has revealed that many more people were involved in planning the atrocities in which 130 people were killed.

“What we need to do is arrest all those who organized and facilitated these attacks. There are far more numerous people than we have identified, and it is that work that we need to deal with,” Hollande told a press conference in Brussels with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

The French president said that hidden terrorist influence has spread throughout Europe, warning of further raids to neutralize terrorists. “We are dealing with extensive networks in several countries,” Hollande said, adding that Friday’s arrests “give us the chance to know the whole truth.”

Hollande stressed that “everywhere, in Belgium as in France, the threat is very large,” despite the arrests made.

Hollande is probably right in a couple ways. First, there were undoubtedly others involved, as Iraqi intel said immediately after the attacks. Second, extensive networks do exist, but the issues that need to be raised are who organized them and who controls them. Hollande need look no further than NATO’s “Gladio B” and the intelligence services who have repeatedly colluded with and controlled jihadi patsies. So, yes, this is an opportunity to learn the “whole truth”. Whether that truth is exposed is another question entirely.