“It’s important for me to say this, because since the beginning of this case, people have not stopped slandering me.”
Among the 20 defendants, Abdeslam is the only one to be directly accused of murder, attempted murder and hostage taking.
A woman is evacuated from the Bataclan concert hall after the mass shooting.Credit:AP
Abdeslam told the court he had been drawn to Islamic State out of compassion for the Syrian people rather than any religious views, and said the West imposed its rules and values on others.
“For us Muslims, it’s humiliating,” he said.
Abdeslam said he had never travelled to Syria. However, he acknowledged that he admired the willingness of Islamic State militants to sacrifice themselves daily.
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He was not a danger to society, he told the court.
“Islamic State’s fight is legitimate. I want to live under Sharia law. But why would that make me dangerous?,” he asked the court. “If I am released, I won’t hurt anyone. I was on the run for four months, I didn’t do anything to anyone.”
In 2018, a Belgian court convicted Abdeslam of shooting at officers while trying to evade capture.
Abdeslam’s ex-fiancee, in a written statement submitted to the court, described a man who had shown few outward signs of being devoutly religious.
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Asked by a lawyer for civil parties, how he had gone from being a near non-practicing Muslim to an armed jihadist, he replied: “I am afraid of God, I am afraid of hell, I am afraid of God’s punishment.”
Abdeslam said the militant group had carried out the attacks to force then-President Francois Hollande to end France’s military forays in Iraq and Syria.
The attacks scarred the French national psyche and shaped a long-running national debate about immigration, the balance to strike between civil freedoms and security, and the place of Islam in a country that identifies as secular.
More than six years on, those same questions are prominent in the campaign ahead of April’s presidential election.
Arthur Denouveaux, who survived the Bataclan massacre, said he wanted to understand how a person reached the point where he was prepared to wear a suicide vest.
“How do you become radicalised so quickly while going unnoticed by everyone?” he said.
Reuters
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‘I did not hurt anyone’: Bataclan attacks suspect says he chose not to detonate vest
Source: Philippines Alive
