Main Paris suspect claims he didn’t know about Brussels attacks

Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam said he “didn’t know” about this week’s suicide bombings at Brussels airport and on a metro train and wants to be extradited to France as soon as possible, his lawyer said Thursday.

Asked if Abdeslam, who was arrested last week in Brussels over the Paris carnage in November, had prior knowledge of Tuesday’s attacks in the Belgian capital, lawyer Sven Mary said in English: “He didn’t know it.”

“Salah Abdeslam told me that he wishes to leave for France as soon as possible,” Mary added. “I will ask the investigating magistrate not to oppose his departure.”

Abdeslam, the suspected Paris attacker arrested in Brussels on March 18, has not cooperated with investigators since the attacks in the Belgian capital, his lawyer told Europe 1 radio in an interview broadcast on Thursday.

“I think he wanted to see me because he had a visit from the investigators” on Tuesday, said Mary.

Asked if Abdeslam had cooperated with the investigators following the triple bomb attack in Brussels, Mary said: “No.”

“I don’t want him to close up again. If he closes up again, we will be facing more cases like Zaventem and the Bataclan,” he said, referring to Brussels airport hit Tuesday and the Paris concert hall struck by jihadists on November 13.

Asked what Abdeslam thought of the Brussels attacks, Mary said: “I don’t want to know what he thinks. At this stage, it’s not important.”

Abdeslam, 26, who was shot in the leg during his arrest last Friday in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, “is recovering bit by bit from his injury, which was not serious,” Mary said.

Investigators believe Abdeslam played a key role in organizing the attacks in Paris but appears to have dumped his suicide vest at the last minute.

He was caught after four months on the run, and is being kept in a high-security prison in Bruges in northwest Belgium.

Shortly after his arrest, Mary had told reporters that Abdeslam was cooperating with investigators.