Salah Abdeslam’s Lawyers Give Up His Defense

Salah Abdeslam’s lawyers say they will no longer defend the main suspect in last year’s Islamist attacks in Paris.

He will use his right to remain silent, one of the lawyers, Frank Berton, told BFM TV.

“We said from the beginning… that if our client remained silent we would quit his defense,” Frank Berton said, alongside fellow lawyer Sven Mary.

The attacks in Paris in November 2015 on bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the Stade de France killed 130 people.

ISIS said it was behind the attacks.

Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels in March 2016 and has kept silent since his transfer to France in April.

The attacker is being monitored 24 hours a day by video in his prison cell.

Frank Berton said in May the suspect was “particularly disturbed” by the surveillance.

Salah Abdeslam is thought to have played a key role in planning the Paris attacks and transporting the attackers, but investigators are yet to determine his specific role.

The lawyers informed Salah Abdeslam they would no longer represent him on October 6, BFM TV reports. It says that at present, he does not want to be represented by anyone else.

Legal representation is not required while the investigation continues but will be at his trial.

“The real victims of all of this are the victims of the Paris attacks, because they are entitled to this truth and they have the right to try to comprehend the incomprehensible,” Sven Mary said.