The last surviving suspect in the November 2015 attacks in and around Paris apologised to the court on Wednesday, saying he chose not to detonate his suicide belt that night but felt ashamed for not doing so: "I was afraid of the looks from the other jihadists," he said, reports FRANCE 24.
"I didn't go all the way, I abandoned triggering my belt, not out of cowardice, not out of fear, but I just didn't want to," Salah Abdeslam told the hearing into the November 13, 2015 massacres.
The last surviving suspected assailant in the 2015 gun and bomb attacks that shook Paris insisted in court Wednesday that he had "abandoned" plans to blow himself up with a bomb belt.
"I didn't go all the way, I abandoned triggering my belt, not out of cowardice, not out of fear, but I just didn't want to," Salah Abdeslam told the hearing into the November 13, 2015 massacres.
The 32-year-old French defendant had met questions from prosecutors and plaintiffs' lawyers with silence for around two hours before deciding to answer.
He had "promised" in a previous hearing to provide an explanation, Claire Josserand-Schmidt, acting for some of the plaintiffs, told him as she opened her questioning, adding that she wasn't trying to "trap" the suspect.
Abdeslam at first said he was "very sorry" before agreeing to respond.