The main terror suspect behind the 2015 Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, goes on trial in Belgium under tight security next week over a shootout in Brussels that led to his capture.
It will be the first public glimpse of the 28-year-old who led police on a four-month international manhunt following the attacks in the French capital that killed 130 people.
Abdeslam, who is currently in jail in France, has stayed silent under interrogation since his arrest but insisted on personally attending the trial over the March 15, 2016 gun battle in the Belgian capital.
The Brussels-born French citizen and the man arrested with him, Sofian Ayari, 24, face charges of “attempting to murder several police officers in a terrorist context” and of “carrying prohibited weapons in a terrorist context”.
Abdeslam is the sole surviving suspect of the Paris attacks and is also linked to the terror cell that carried out the March 22 suicide bombings in Brussels just days after his arrest.
The Islamic State group claimed both sets of attacks that left a total of 162 people dead and hundreds more wounded.
Belgium’s federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said he expected the trial to “yield clues” about the cell behind the two attacks.
“This is important for the victims,” he added
