A nasty rant towards the victims and their families. This is the resume of the main defendant’s statement in this extraordinary trial. As the lawyer for one of his co-defendants spoke, Salah Abdeslam brusquely challenged the president of the court, according to a report by the newspaper, Le Figaro. “Pay attention to the people. Listen, Mr. President. We are men, we have rights. You should not treat us like dogs. (…) Over there (in prison, editor’s note) I have been treated like a dog for more than six years, I have not said a word for six years because I know that after death I will be resurrected and you will have to answer”. Unimpressed, the president of the court, Jean-Louis Périès, interrupted him and briefly reminded him that “we are not in a religious court, but in a democratic court”.
Earlier, Salah Abdeslam had given an unexpected answer to the usual opening questions of a trial (identity, address, profession and name of parents). “The names of my father and mother have no place here,” he said. When asked about his profession, he replied that he had resigned from it, assuming that he was a “fighter for the Islamic State”.