Paris Terror Suspect Abdeslam Charged With Attempted Murder

REUTERS - Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the November 13 Paris attacks, has been charged with attempted murder in Belgium over a police shootout in Brussels three days before his arrest, prosecutors said.

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Abdeslam, who is due to be extradited to France in the next few weeks over his part in the attacks in Paris by ISIS militants that killed 130 people, appeared before a Belgian judge on Thursday.

Four police officers were wounded and an Islamist gunman was killed in the shootout at a suspected militant safe house in the Brussels district of Forest on March 15.

Investigators found fingerprints of Abdeslam, who was born in Belgium to Moroccan-born parents, at the scene.

"He was charged with attempted murder over the shooting in Forest," a spokesman for Belgium's federal prosecutors said, adding that he did not believe charging Abdeslam would delay his extradition to France.

Abdeslam has told a magistrate he had planned to blow himself up at a sports stadium in Paris on November 13 but backed out at the last minute.

He has also told investigators he arranged logistics for the Paris attacks.
Abdeslam's elder brother Brahim, a Brussels barkeeper, blew himself up outside a Parisian cafe on the night of the attacks.

Salah Abdeslam's lawyer has said his client has admitted being in Paris during the attacks but has given no further details.