The French prosecutor's office said that key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam was transferred to France Wednesday morning and was to go before investigating judges for eventual charges*, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Abdeslam, who was arrested in Belgium last month after four months on the run, was wanted in France for his role in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 victims.
He was the only survivor of the attacks and his testimony would likely prove precious to definitively linking events of the night of carnage when three teams of attackers blew themselves up or sprayed gunfire at Paris night clubs, a noted music hall and the sports stadium outside Paris.
The transfer of the suspected extremist who had been Europe's most wanted fugitive was carried out without advance notice and in secrecy. Abdeslam had been held in a high-security cell at a jail in Beveren near Antwerp.
French lawyer Frank Berton, announcing Wednesday he will lead Abdeslam's defense, described his in a French TV interview as a young man "falling apart" and ready to cooperate. Berton said he was "rather surprised" his client had already arrived.
Read more of this Associated Press report published by the Los Angeles Times.
* Editor's note: Under a change to the French legal system introduced in 1993, a magistrate can decide a suspect should be 'placed under investigation' (mise en examen), which is a status one step short of being charged (inculpé), if there is 'serious or concordant' evidence that they committed a crime. Some English-language media describe this status, peculiar to French criminal law, as that of being charged. In fact, it is only at the end of an investigation that a decision can be made to bring charges, in which case the accused is automatically sent for trial.