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Two suspected assassins shortly before the terror series at a gas station north of Paris.
Salah Abdeslam on the right, next to Mohammed Abrini
Photo:
- / AFP
Mohammed Abrini is one of the defendants currently being tried in Paris for the 2015 terror series.
He testified that there were plans for further attacks in the French capital.
The attacks were originally intended to take place during the 2016 European Football Championship in France, Abrini said in court on Wednesday.
Instead, on March 22, 2016, the attacks on the airport and the metro in Brussels took place.
"March 22, that wasn't planned," said Abrini, who appeared on camera footage of the attack on the airport as a "man in a hat."
In the series of attacks on November 13, 2015, extremists killed a total of 130 people.
Three attackers committed a massacre in the Bataclan concert hall, others attacked bars and restaurants.
At the Stade de France, three suicide bombers blew themselves up during an international football match between Germany and France.
The terrorist militia "Islamic State" (IS) claimed responsibility for the deeds that hit France to the core.
A total of 20 suspected Islamists have been charged.
As Abrini testified, he accompanied the Paris terrorist squad from Brussels to Paris on November 12, 2015, but returned to the Belgian capital on the eve of the attacks -- as he said, because he didn't want to kill people after all.
Nevertheless, he slipped into various hiding places of the terrorist squad in Brussels, in which, according to his statement, heavy weapons were stored everywhere.
The sole survivor of the terrorist commando, Salah Abdeslam, who was also accused in Paris, also returned there.
According to his own account, he did not detonate his explosive vest in court because he also changed his mind.
According to Abrini, he told the other Islamists: "I tried, but the vest didn't work." The others held Abdeslam accountable for that.
"Why didn't you use a lighter or a fag to blow yourself up?"
At the end of his testimony, Abrini turned to the victims' families.
"November 13, that should never have happened, I apologize."
as/dpa
