International manhunt for Paris attacks suspect finally brought to an end

Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was captured in Belgium on Friday thanks to an unusual pizza delivery order, has revealed to investigators that “he was ready to restart something in Brussels”.

Abdeslam is the sole surviving member of the ISIS death squad that killed 130 in the 2015 Paris attacks.

According to Brussel’s deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, Didier Reynders, Abdeslam’s confession reflected a very real threat because so many weapons and a new terror network were found in the city.

Reynders also claims that the amount of people thought to be directly or indirectly involved in the November 13 attacks keep growing, both in France and Belgium. At least 30 people have been identified so far, but Reynders is positive that there are others.

“In addition to the assailants who died on the night of the attacks, 18 people who are suspected of assisting the attackers are detained in six countries, and at least two others are still at large,” said Reynders.

French President Hollande also expressed that Abdeslam’s arrest and potential extradition was an “important stage” but “not the final conclusion of this story”, given the widespread inter-country terror networks now existent in Europe.

“We must catch all those who enabled, organized or facilitated these attacks, and we are realising that they are much more numerous than we had originally thought and identified,” he said.

Early last week, a joint counter-terrorism team of French and Belgian officers raided an apartment in the Forest district of Brussels. The raid saw four officers wounded and a gunman killed, while two suspects who were in the apartment got away. In the apartment, authorities found a Kalashnikov rifle, a black Islamic State (IS) flag, a book on Salafism (the radical Sunni ideology associated with the IS), ammunition and Abdeslam’s fingerprints.

Shortly after that raid, 26-year-old Abdeslam rang up a friend, asking for a place to stay. The friend tipped off the police, who traced Abdeslam’s mobile phone to Abid Alberkan’s apartment in Molenbeek.

When cornered by authorities on Friday, Abdelsam dashed out of his hideaway only to get shot in the leg and taken into custody. He spent Friday night in the hospital receiving treatment for his gunshot wound. The next day he was whisked to a maximum security jail cell in Bruurges, where he is now being interrogated.

In total, five from Molenbeek were arrested on Friday, three of whom were family members accused of sheltering Abdeslam. Meanwhile, Abdeslam himself was officially charged with participation in terrorist murder, and participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation.

BBC reported that at a press conference on Saturday, French investigator Francois Molins revealed that Abdeslam wanted to detonate a suicide vest along with others at the Stade de France on the night of the Paris terror attacks, which was claimed by the Islamic State, but later “backed out”. Abdeslam’s high-profile lawyer Sven Mary intends to sue Prosecutor Molins for making the comment public, deeming it a ‘violation of judicial confidentiality’.

Prosecutor Molins, on the other hand, insisted he had the right to make elements of the inquiry public in an ‘objective’ manner. He also warned that Mary’s efforts to combat extradition for Salah Abdeslam are likely to be in vain. According to Molins, Abdeslam will probably be handed over to the French authorities in the next three months, in check with the European arrest warrant’s procedural guidelines.

Mary thinks Abdeslam is ‘worth his weight in gold’ as he has been cooperating and communicating, answering questions “not only about his own role” in the attacks. The lawyer stressed that Abdeslam hasn’t invoked his right to silence. Mary himself, however, has earned the nickname ‘scumbag’s lawyer’ from his work defending a string of notorious criminals in Belgium.