Paris attacks suspect in Brussels for shootout trial

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Posted: Monday, February 5, 2018 2:49 am | Updated: 3:15 am, Mon Feb 5, 2018.

Paris attacks suspect in Brussels for shootout trial Associated Press |

BRUSSELS (AP) — The only surviving member of the Islamic State cell that attacked Paris in November 2015 is appearing in public for the first time since his arrest nearly two years ago.

Salah Abdeslam goes on trial in his hometown of Brussels on charges of attempted murder for a police shootout from which he fled. The man who covered for his getaway with a spray of automatic gunfire died. Abdeslam's escape was short-lived — he was captured on March 18, 2016, in the same neighborhood where he and many of his Islamic State fighter colleagues grew up.

Abdeslam arrived in the Belgian capital on Monday morning after being transferred from a prison in France. Security is high at the Brussels courthouse, with armed guards and multiple checkpoints leading to the courtroom where Abdeslam is to appear.

Abdeslam has refused to speak to investigators in France about the attack there that killed 130. Days after his capture, extremists struck in Brussels. In total, 162 people died in the two attacks.

The trial relates to the 2016 shooting in Brussels, some four months after the Paris attacks. Abdeslam and two suspects were hiding in an apartment when police arrived for a routine search. Three officers were wounded in the shootout that followed and one suspect was killed. Abdeslam was captured a few days later in the flashpoint Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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