Salah Abdeslam, sentenced to life in jail over Paris jihadist attacks in 2015, has been transferred from Belgium back to France, his lawyer says.
Abdeslam is the only surviving member of the Islamic State cell that killed 130 people in the French capital in November 2015.
Found guilty at trial in Belgium last September over subsequent 2016 attacks in Brussels, his transfer back to France had been blocked due to human rights concerns.
“They came to get him in his cell at 9 a.m. this morning and he left for France,” Abdeslam’s lawyer Delphine Paci tells AFP.
“It’s a flagrant violation of the rule of law,” she says. “There was clearly collusion between the Belgian state and the French state to violate a court decision.”
“This is clearly about a kind of thirst for revenge that has taken precedence over the rule of law,” Paci charges.
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From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
