Terror suspect Salah Abdeslam ‘a little jerk’, says own lawyer

Salah Abdeslam, believed to be the sole survivor of a group of Islamist militants who killed 130 people in Paris, in November, has been extradited to France from Belgium. 

His own lawyer has described Abdeslam as a “little jerk” who’s “falling apart” and ready to co-operate

Abdeslam, 26, was Europe’s most wanted fugitive, until his capture in Brussels on March 18, after a four-month manhunt. He was taken by helicopter to Paris, under armed guard, and driven to the capital’s main law courts.

French Justice Minister, Jean-Jacques Urvoas, said Abdeslam would be held in a high-security prison in the Paris region.

His capture came four days before separate suicide bomb attacks, by Islamist militants, at Brussels international airport and on a metro train. 32 people were killed

Frank Berton, a high-profile French criminal lawyer, will lead Abdeslam’s defence and visited his client for two hours last week, in his prison cell in Belgium, along with Abdeslam’s Belgian lawyer, Sven Mary.

Mary, Abdeslam’s main lawyer in Belgium, distanced himself from his client, telling France’s Liberation: “He’s a little jerk from Molenbeek, from a world of petty criminals, more of the follower than a leader, with the brains of an empty ash-tray.”