A victim under a blanket lays dead outside the Bataclan theatre in Paris in November 2015. Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the 10-man Isis cell is going on trial. Photo / AP
Hundreds of armed police are guarding the Brussels court where the trial of Salah Abdeslam, the prime Paris attacks suspect, opens tonight NZT following his transfer in secrecy from a prison outside the French capital.
Abdeslam, a French national of Moroccan descent, is being tried on charges of terrorism, possession
of weapons and attempted murder during a shootout with police in Brussels three days before his arrest in March 2016.
He will face another trial in France at a later date for his alleged role in the November 2015 Paris attacks.
During the court hearings in Brussels, expected to last four days, Abdeslam, 28, is being held at a jail in northern France near the Belgian border from where he can more easily be brought to court by helicopter or road.
The exact times of the transfers and the method of transport are to be kept secret. Hundreds of elite officers have been deployed to escort him and guard the route.
