Paris attacks suspect jailed for 20 years

International Desk: Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving suspect from the 2015 Paris attacks, has been jailed for 20 years in Belgium over a gunfight that led to his arrest.

Abdeslam, 28, and co-defendant Sofien Ayari were both convicted of terror-related charges of attempted murder.

Ayari, 24, was also given a 20-year sentence. Both fired on officers who raided a flat in Brussels in 2016.

He is being held in a jail in France and is due to face trial there over the Paris attacks themselves.

He has refused to answer questions from the judge in the trial in Brussels, and eventually refused to attend the hearings.

Neither he nor Ayari, 24, was in court as the verdict was read out on Monday. Both received the maximum 20-year term requested by prosecutors.

The judge said that "there can be no doubt" about the two men's involvement with "radicalism".

Source: BBC


risingbd/Dhaka/April 23, 2018/AI