New Belgian trial date set for Paris attacks suspect after lawyer seeks delay

BRUSSELS: A Belgian court has set a new trail date of Feb. 5 for Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam over a shooting in Brussels that led to his capture.
Abdeslam, the sole surviving suspect of the November 2015 Paris attacks which left 130 people dead, was due to face trial in the Belgian capital this week.
But last week the court said it agreed to set a new date at Monday’s hearing following an application by Abdeslam’s lawyer Sven Mary.
According to Belgian media reports the trial will be put back to January or February.
Abdeslam and Sofian Ayari, also implicated in the shootout, face charges of “attempting to murder several police officers in a terrorist context” and “carrying prohibited weapons in a terrorist context.”
Both men were captured days after the March 15, 2016 shootout, ending a four-month manhunt for Abdeslam for his alleged role in the Paris attacks.
The 28-year-old is linked to the same cell that carried out suicide bombings in Brussels a week after the gunbattle. Thirty-two people were killed at Brussels airport and a metro station near the EU’s headquarters.
Abdeslam, born in Brussels of Moroccan origin, has spent nearly 20 months in isolation, under 24-hour video surveillance, at a prison in the Paris region since his transfer to France in April last year.
He has refused to cooperate with investigators and his offer to appear at the Brussels trial came as a surprise.
The hearings are a highly-anticipated chance to see if he has changed his mind about keeping mum.