Salah Abdeslam (French pronunciation: [sala abdɛslam]; born 15 September 1989) is a Belgian-born Islamic terrorist who was sentenced to life in prison in France in 2022 as the only surviving member of the 10-man unit that carried out the attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, in which 130 people were killed and more than 490 injured.

From 2013 he helped his brother Brahim Abdeslam, who was a suicide bomber in the Paris attacks, run a Molenbeek café-bar which was a centre for drug dealing and watching Islamic State videos.

In the months preceding the Paris attacks, Abdeslam drove to Hungary and Germany to collect members of the Brussels Islamic State terror cell who were returning from Syria via the migrant route.

On the evening of 13 November 2015, Abdeslam drove the three Stade de France bombers to the football stadium, before failing to detonate his own suicide vest and abandoning his car.

Abdeslam was born in the Brussels district of Molenbeek on 15 September 1989 to parents who came from Morocco and who had acquired French nationality after living in Algeria.

[3][4] In December 2011 Abdeslam, together with childhood friend Abdelhamid Abaaoud and two others, was arrested for an attempted robbery on a garage in Ottignies to the south of Brussels.

[2] He then alternated temporary work with unemployment and, from 2013, helped his brother Brahim run his Molenbeek café-bar, Café Les Béguines, which was a centre for drug dealing and watching Islamic State videos.

[3] The café-bar was closed nine days before the 13 November attacks, after a police raid in August 2015 had found evidence of drug dealing on the premises.

[5] Abdeslam and his brother Brahim were also named on a list of people suspected of having become radicalised which was provided to the mayor of Molenbeek by the Belgian intelligence services on 26 October 2015.

[9][10] In October 2015, Abdeslam purchased twelve remote detonators and a number of batteries from a fireworks shop in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône in the northwestern suburbs of Paris.

[14] In the early hours of 12 November, Abdeslam drove to a hideout in Charleroi to meet up with Abaaoud, Abrini and other members of the terrorist cell.

That afternoon they set off for Paris in the Clio and the SEAT León, being joined by another group in the Polo leaving from a hideout in the Jette district of Brussels.

On reaching Paris, the Clio and SEAT León headed for the Bobigny house, while the Bataclan attackers in the Polo spent the night in the Alfortville hotel.

[15] On the evening of 13 November 2015, Abdeslam drove the three Stade de France bombers to the football stadium just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis.

Half an hour later he activated a phone with a SIM card he had bought nearby, which allowed investigators to trace his movements for the rest of the night.

They passed two check points unhindered because, although by that time Abdeslam's name had been found on the rental documents of the car used by Bataclan attackers and left outside the theatre, it had not yet been put on all police computers.

[20][21] He spent two weeks in a hideout on Rue Henri Bergé/Henri Bergéstraat in Schaerbeek with other members of the Brussels terrorist cell, who were plotting further attacks.

[23][24] After escaping from the Forest raid, Abdeslam contacted a cousin, Abid Aberkan, who agreed to shelter him and Ayari in his mother's flat in Molenbeek.

[27] Following his arrest, Abdeslam was treated in hospital for a minor wound to his leg and the next day was transferred to the high-security wing of Bruges Prison, having been charged with terrorist murder and participating in a terror group.

[28] He initially co-operated with investigators when questioned about his role in the Paris attacks on the day after his arrest and admitted to having rented hotel rooms and cars and driven three bombers to the Stade de France.

[35] Abdeslam and Ayari went on trial at the Palais de Justice in Brussels on 5 February 2018 for attempted murder during the Forest shootout in which four police officers were injured.

On the first day of the trial, Abdeslam attended court and explained why he would be refusing to answer questions, saying that his silence was his defence and claiming that the legal process was biased against Muslims.

[37] On 29 November 2019, after a four-year investigation, the French national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office charged Abdeslam and thirteen others in relation to the Paris attacks and issued a further six arrest warrants.

[38] The trial, starting on 8 September 2021 and lasting nearly ten months, took place in a specially constructed courtroom in the Palais de Justice, Paris, before five judges presided over by Jean-Louis Périès.

Nineteen men were on trial alongside Abdeslam, including six being tried in their absence (Ahmed Dahmani being in prison in Turkey and five others presumed dead in Syria).

Abdeslam claimed that the attacks were retaliation against France for bombing the Islamic State and "nothing personal", words which shocked the survivors and victims' relatives listening in court.

He told the court that he had entered a bar in the 18th arrondissement of Paris with the intention of detonating his suicide vest but changed his mind at the last moment "out of humanity, not fear".

Abdeslam was found guilty of murder and terrorism and sentenced to a full-life term of imprisonment, meaning that he will only have a small chance of parole after thirty years.

The trial, which lasted seven months, took place with a jury before presiding judge Laurence Massart in the Justitia building (the former headquarters of NATO) in Evere, Brussels.