Captured fugitive Salah Abdeslam initially planned to blow himself up outside the Stade de France during last year’s terror attacks in Paris, but changed his mind, a prosecutor said on Saturday, after Europe’s most wanted man was charged with “terrorist murder” for his role in the Nov. 13 assaults.
Abdeslam, who was caught after being shot in the leg in a dramatic police raid on Friday, was also charged in Brussels with participating in a terrorist group. He was then taken to a maximum security prison in the northwestern tourist city of Bruges.
Abdeslam, 26, is cooperating with the authorities, but he is to fight his extradition to France, his lawyer, Sven Mary, said.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said that Abdeslam told interrogators he initially “wanted to blow himself up” at the Stade de France before changing his mind.
Molins said the statement should be “taken cautiously.”
French President Francois Hollande said after Abdeslam’s arrest on Friday that he wanted to see him transferred to France as quickly as possible to face prosecution for the deadly attacks.
Legal experts said this could delay, but not prevent, his handover to the French authorities under a European Arrest Warrant, which the EU introduced specifically to speed up extradition cases.
The French Ministry of Justice said that 90 days is the maximum amount of time it would take for Abdeslam’s transfer.
Abdeslam’s arrest in the Molenbeek neighborhood was hailed by European and US leaders, while French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve said it dealt a “major blow” to Islamic State militants operating in Europe.
However, Cazeneuve said that the threat level remained “extremely high,” adding that France is deploying extra police officers to its borders to step up controls following discussions with the International Criminal Police Organization.
The Belgian media said Abdeslam’s capture restored the nation’s honor, tarnished by perceived intelligence and police blunders before and after the attacks, which appear increasingly to have been planned and coordinated in Brussels.
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