Salah Abdeslam, the Paris massacre suspect who went on the run in Europe for months, is a “little jerk” who’s “falling apart” and ready to cooperate, his lawyers said as he was officially transferred from Belgium to France Wednesday.
(FOX)- “He has the intelligence of an empty ashtray,” Abdeslam’s Belgian lawyer Sven Mary told the French newspaper Liberation. He dismissed his client’s influence on terrorists, calling Abdeslam “more a follower than a leader.”
The suspect’s lawyer in France, Frank Berton, told iTele TV his client wants to talk, “he has things to say, that he wants to explain his route to radicalization” as well as his role in the attacks — but not take responsibility for others.
“That means be judged for facts and acts that he committed but not for what he did not commit simply because he is the only survivor of the attacks,” Berton said.
Investigating judges in France were set to decide how to charge Abdeslam. Prosecutors said he was instrumental in coordinating logistics for the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people at Paris night clubs, a noted music hall and the sports stadium outside the city. The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the carnage.
Police arrested Abdeslam in Belgium last month after he spent four months on the run.
The quick, secret transfer to France surprised even Berton, who rushed from Lille to join his client at the Palace of Justice, arriving in the early afternoon.