Molins also told reporters in Paris that people should treat with caution initial statements by the 26-year-old French national. After French media broke word that Abdeslam’s fingerprints had been found, police moved in and seized him.
Advertisement
“Either Salah Abdeslam is very clever, or the Belgian services are stupid, which is more likely”, said French lawmaker Alain Marsaud, a member of an ongoing parliamentary inquiry into possible security failings over the November attacks.
The ministry gave Belgian authorities a maximum deadline of two months, or three if he appeals, to move Abdeslam on to French soil. The suspect’s Belgian lawyer made it clear he would fight extradition.
Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, said he hopes Abdeslam can be brought to France to face justice. “We need to maintain our vigilance to be ahead of the threat”.
Samia Maktouf, a French lawyer for several survivors and relatives of Paris attack victims, is urging immediate extradition.
“I can already tell you that we will oppose his extradition”, Abdeslam’s lawyer Sven Mary told reporters at federal police headquarters in Brussels.
Friday’s capture of Abdeslam came after Belgian authorities said they found his fingerprints in an apartment raided earlier this week in another Brussels neighborhood. The Islamic State group (IS) claimed responsibility.
The arrests leave only one known suspect still on the run, Mohamed Abrini, who was filmed with Abdeslam two days before the attacks at a petrol station on a motorway close to Paris.
It may also be an opportunity to disrupt other militant cells which Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said were certainly “out there” and planning further violence.
The gun and bomb attacks on November 13 on the stadium, bars, and a concert hall killed 130 people and marked the deadliest militant assault in Europe since 2004. While the terrorists who carried out the nightmare all killed themselves after the attacks, more accomplices and organizers may still be at large.
Molins did not say whether Abdeslam explained his reasoning for abandoning the attack. Investigators believe Abdeslam drove a auto carrying one of the groups.
Salah Abdeslam planned to blow himself up during the Paris attacks but changed his mind, it has emerged.
“If he starts talking, then I presume it will mean he stays longer in Belgium”, Belgian federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt told The Associated Press.
Nine of the 10 terrorists, all citizens of various European nations, died in the attacks. A European arrest warrant is effectively an extradition request. On Saturday, Belgian prosecutors formally charged Abdeslam with involvement in terrorist murder. They said he is believed to have used fake Syrian and Belgian documents in two different names.
He and four other suspects were detained in a raid in Molenbeek, including three members of a family who allegedly sheltered him.
Advertisement
Mr. Van Leeuw also spoke of a “family network, a network of friends” dating back from Mr. Abdeslam’s time as a petty criminal who helped him escape.
