'Abdeslam is not complicit'

brussels - Salah Abdeslam was not present in the Brussels court yesterday, but was defended by his lawyer Sven Mary. According to his counsel, 'public enemies number 1' is not complicit in the shooting in Vorst which he faced this week.

The only living terrorist from the attacks of 13 November 2015 in Paris said on Monday that he did not want to work and only has faith in Allah. Sven Mary defends him anyway, because he thinks you can give 'barbarians a middle finger' by showing that the legal system treats them fairly.

Abdeslam fled Paris on the night of the attacks of November 13, presumably because his bomb vest did not. He hid with Soufiane Ayari and Mohamed Belkaïd in an apartment in Vorst, where the police invaded on March 15, 2016. Belkaïd opened the fire on the agents, four of whom were injured. He did not survive the shooting.

The public prosecutor suspects that Ayari also shot at the police, but there is no evidence that Abdeslam has fired shots. Yet she thinks that the attack on the police should be seen as a terrorist act of the three. She demanded 20 years against both suspects.

According to Sven Mary, there was no premeditation or even a terrorist act. When the police invaded, Belkaïd decided to shoot; it was not a plan with which the three of Belgium wanted to meet.

The court pronounces at the end of April.