Abdeslam's lawyers say claims his wife is pregnant are 'completely false'
.jpg)
The wife of convicted terrorist Salah Abdeslam is not expecting a child, his lawyers said on Tuesday, after the claim was made by a lawyer for the victims of the 2015 Paris attacks.
Samia Maktouf, who assisted the civil parties in the Paris attacks trial, told French broadcaster Cnews on Tuesday morning that "it seems that the wife he chose from hundreds of candidates is pregnant".
Abdeslam, 35, is the only survivor of the terrorist cell that carried out simultaneous attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, killing 130 people. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the attacks.
In February 2024, he was transferred from Belgium to France after he was also convicted in Belgium for his involvement in the terrorist attacks in Zaventem and Brussels on 22 March 2016.
'Shameful controversy'
"We are stunned to hear that a lawyer considers herself competent to spread the alleged information that Salah Abdeslam's partner is pregnant. This is completely false," Paris lawyers Olivia Ronen, Benoît David and Martin Vettes and the Brussels lawyers Delphine Paci and Harold Sax said in a statement.
"We regret that the media that reported this 'news' did not take the trouble to verify it," they said, adding that Abdeslam "has the right to a private life and it is our responsibility to defend this right, including by taking legal action against those who violate it."
"Finally, on this national day of remembrance for the victims of terror, we deplore this shameful controversy and send our deepest condolences to the victims of the attacks of 13 November 2015 in Paris and 22 March 2016 in Brussels, which claimed the lives of 130 and 32 people respectively," the lawyers said.
Salah Abdeslam during the trial surrounding the attacks of 22 March 2016 in Brussels © BELGA ILLUSTRATION JONATHAN DE CESARE
Related news
