Salah Abdeslam, who has been convicted for his role in the Brussels and Paris terrorist attacks, has left his prison in Belgium and was handed over to French authorities despite his bids to serve out both sentences in Belgium.
Abdeslam (33) was taken from his cell in Haren prison on Wednesday morning, Eric Van der Sypt, spokesperson for the Federal Prosecutor's Office, confirmed. He had been moved to Belgium in July 2022 from France, where he was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of ever being released for the 13 November 2015 attacks.
This move was to ensure his presence at the mega trial of the 22 March 2016 attacks in Brussels Airport and the Maelbeek metro station. For this, the Belgian judicial authorities issued a European arrest warrant to France.
The Paris Court of Appeal decided to hand him over to Belgium for the duration of the Belgian trial, but this temporary surrender was limited to the duration of the Belgian trial before the assize court and any cassation appeal. The case, which was Belgium's biggest to date, ended in October last year.
Case to stay
Abdeslam, however, soon made it clear he did not want to return to France after the trial and instead wanted to serve his sentence in a Belgian prison. He argued that "to send me to France is to send me to death". This was rejected by the French authorities and the Belgian judge did not rule in his favour as it could not be sufficiently demonstrated that his human rights would be violated in France.
He took his case to the French-speaking appeal court in Brussels which banned the return in October and ruled that Abdeslam could not return until the French-speaking court of first instance in Brussels had ruled on the merits, proceedings that had not yet started. Abdeslam's lawyer Delphine Paci told the French news agency AFP that Wednesday's move is therefore a flagrant violation of the rule of law.
However, Van der Sypt said the conditions of the release mean Abdeslam's return to France at the end of the criminal proceedings was "legally irrevocable".
"The judicial agreement between France and Belgium takes precedence over the ongoing civil proceedings, in which Abdeslam is contesting his extradition."
Van der Sypt also stressed that a legal analysis of the situation showed that, without rapid repatriation, Belgium would soon have had no legal basis to keep him in prison any longer and "we want to avoid that at all costs". He added that the time limit currently granted by France to detain Abdeslam in Belgium could no longer be extended.
