The French prison administration told AFP on Monday that nothing has yet been organised for the handing over of Salah Abdeslam to Belgium. He is the only survivor of the 13 November 2015 terrorist cell. "At the moment, nothing has been arranged. The discussions are ongoing with our Belgian counterparts,” the prison administration told the news agency. The Belgian press raised yesterday (23 October) the possibility of transferring Salah Abdeslam by helicopter from his prison in the Paris region to the Belgian capital.
A French judicial source stated that the conditions of the transfer had "not yet decided" and would be "subject to consultation". Another source close to the case pointed out that France was waiting to know precisely the dates of the trial in Belgium.
On 5 October, Paris and Brussels reached an agreement for the provisional transfer of Abdeslam for the duration of his trial in Belgium. A hearing will be devoted to the shoot-out with police officers on 15 March 2016 in Forest in Brussels which ended Abdeslam's escape.
The Belgian federal prosecutor's office then announced that "a solid legal solution" had been found with the Paris prosecutor's office, paving the way for Abdeslam´s appearance in Belgium. The trial is scheduled to take place from 18 to 22 December, according to a lawyer in the Belgian case.
The French-born Moroccan, the only survivor of the perpetrators who carried out the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015 which left 130 dead was arrested in Brussels on March 18, 2016, three days after his escape from an apartment in Forest.
The Brussels Times
