PARIS: The sole surviving member of the jihadist team that carried out the November 2015 Paris attacks apologised on Friday to the victims at the end of his trial testimony.
“I wish to express my condolences and offer an apology to all the victims,” Salah Abdeslam told the court in a sometimes tearful statement.
“I know that hatred remains... I ask you today that you hate me with moderation,” he said, adding: “I ask you to forgive me.”
The comments marked a dramatic end to three days of testimony by Abdeslam, who in the initial stages of the trial had maintained a rigid silence apart from occasional outbursts against the court.
Abdeslam, the main trial suspect after the other jihadists were all killed during or in the wake of the attacks, has said in his testimony that he had planned to blow himself up in a crowded bar but stopped after seeing the people whom he was about to kill.
One of his defence lawyers, Olivia Ronen, during cross examination of her client, asked him if he did not regret carrying out his plan until the end.
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