Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the attacks that left 130 dead in Paris and Saint-Denis, offered his “apologies” to the victims and shed a few tears at the end of his last interrogation at the trial of the November 13 attacks. .
“I want to offer my condolences and my apologies to all the victims,” said the 32-year-old Frenchman from the box, tears on his cheeks. “I know that hatred remains (…) I ask you today to hate me in moderation”.
“I ask you to forgive me,” he insisted.
Final interrogation
Salah Abdeslam’s final interrogation began early Wednesday evening before the Paris Special Assize Court and continued Thursday. It ended Friday afternoon with questions from his defence.
The main defendant maintained throughout these three days that he was to blow himself up in a bar in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, but had “given up” on the spot, at the sight of these young people who looked like him and were having fun.
” I do not regret “
“Do you regret not having had the courage to go all the way? asks one of his lawyers, Me Olivia Ronen.
“I don’t regret, I didn’t kill these people and I didn’t die,” he replies, “I tell myself… if they knew what they missed”. It is by evoking the suffering of his mother that he begins to cry.
“I would like to say today that this story of November 13 was written with the blood of the victims. This is their story, and I was part of it. They are linked to me and I am linked to them, ”continues Salah Abdeslam, his voice trembling, before apologizing.
“That’s all I have to say”
He also asks the three defendants tried for having helped him in his escape, after the attacks, to “pardon” him. “I didn’t want to drag them into it.” One of them, who appears free, will then leave the room with eyes filled with tears.
“I know it’s not going to cure you,” concludes Salah Abdeslam, black beard collar, gray sweatshirt on his back. “But if it can do you any good, if I could do any good for just one of the victims, then for me it’s a victory”.
“That’s all I have to say,” he then told his lawyer. President Jean-Louis Périès suspends the hearing. It will resume with the interrogation of other defendants.