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WORLD NEWS Saturday 10 February 2018

Trial for Paris attack suspect Abdeslam hints at deadly plan

By LORI HINNANT apartment and escaped
PARIS (AP) — The weapons into the Brussels streets.
stockpile in his hideout and "We know that they were
the Islamic State fighter stockpiling weapons in
covering his getaway with preparation for terror-
a spray of gunfire were ist attacks. So if they fled
signs of a deadly plot to it was only because they
come, a Belgian prosecu- had other plans," Kathleen
tor argued Thursday in the Grosjean, the prosecutor,
trial of the man who was said according to the pub-
once Europe's most want- lic broadcaster RTBF .
ed fugitive. Abdeslam and Ayari were
Salah Abdeslam refused to captured on March 18,
attend the final day of his 2016, in Abdeslam's home
trial in Brussels for a March neighborhood of Molen-
15, 2016, shootout with po- beek. Grainy video from
lice that ultimately led to his that day showed him limp-
capture. ing into a waiting police
He left his prison cell in car, a gunshot wound to
France on Monday — the the leg.
first public glimpse of the Four days later, IS suicide
man linked to plots in Paris bombers struck the Brussels
and Brussels that killed a metro and airport. Belgian Judge Marie-France Keutgen presides over the second day of the trial of Salah Abdeslam
total of 162 people. But Ab- The trial in Brussels hinged and Soufiane Ayari at the Brussels Justice Palace in Brussels on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018.
deslam refused to stand for on who fired a second (Francois Lenoir, Pool Photo via AP)
the judge and told her he weapon involved in the
wouldn't answer her ques- shootout: Ayari, Abdeslam shooting. entire case be dismissed deslam is a native French
tions. or the dead jihadi, Mo- "Nothing allows us to say because court orders were speaker.
"My silence is my defense," hamed Belkaid. that Salah Abdeslam pro- written in French, and not His defiant refusal, how-
he said Monday, flanked by Mary said Abdeslam wasn't voked Belkaid into firing on in Dutch as required under ever, came as less of a sur-
masked officers in a heavily responsible for either open- the officers," Mary said. Belgian law. Belgium is lin- prise than his decision to at-
guarded courtroom. ing fire or for inciting the He also requested that the guistically divided but Ab- tend in the first place.q
On Thursday, the lawyer
who once quit defending
him in frustration pleaded France: Jean-Marie Le Pen gets mixed ruling
his case once more.
The getaway shooting that By ELAINE GANLEY with his daughter, former bers will be asked to vote image, including repeat-
left three police officers in- PARIS (AP) — A French ap- French presidential candi- on doing away with the ing a remark that Nazi gas
jured, Sven Mary argued, peals court on Friday up- date Marine Le Pen. rank of honorary president- chambers were a "detail" in
"was a spontaneous act, held the far-right National The father and daughter for-life, a strategy to bypass World War II history.
not a terrorist act," and that Front's decision to expel have waged a bitter pow- the courts and to make Jean-Marie Le Pen sued —
the time to try the Nov. 13, party founder Jean-Marie er struggle over National Jean-Marie Le Pen's remov- his lawyer said the decision
2015, attacks was in 2020 in Le Pen over anti-Semitic re- Front's image since he al definitive. to expel him was made by
Paris, not now in Brussels. marks, but also confirmed named her to succeed him The party said in a state- an "execution squad" —
Abdeslam and Sofiane a lower court's ruling that in 2011. The elder Le Pen, ment that Jean-Marie Le but a lower court in 2016
Ayari, a former IS fighter, are maintains his status as hon- who has been convicted Pen "has no right to take confirmed the ouster.
charged with attempted orary party president for multiple times for racism part in the March congress" In the appeals court ruling
murder in a terrorist context life. and anti-Semitism, now be- because only dues-paying Friday, the judge echoed
and face 20 years in prison. The decision of the Ver- moans fundamental deci- members can participate. the lower court's arguments
Their lawyers said only the ji- sailles appeals court, both sions she made. Marine Le Pen and party that the National Front was
hadi they left behind to die a stinging defeat and The enmity could worsen decision-makers expelled justified in removing Le Pen
in the apartment fired on a partial victory for the with the approach of the the elder Le Pen in 2015 for as a rank-and-file member
officers as they ran across 89-year-old Le Pen, por- anti-immigration party's a series of remarks consid- because of damage he
the rooftops, broke into an tends a new showdown congress in March. Mem- ered a liability to the party's caused to the party. q