Paris attacks jihadist Abdeslam transferred from Belgium to France

Salah Abdeslam – sentenced to life in prison over the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks – was on Wednesday transferred from Belgium to France in a move his lawyer said was a "flagrant violation of the rule of law".

Abdeslam is the only surviving member of the Islamic State cell that killed 130 people in the French capital in November 2015.

The 34-year-old has been detained in Belgium since his trial for the subsequent 2016 attacks in Brussels, for which he was also found guilty in September.

“Salah Adbeslam has just been incarcerated in a prison in the Paris region," French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said.

"In accordance with the decision of the French justice system and the wishes of victims' associations, he will serve his irreducible life sentence there.”

Months in hiding

After fleeing to Brussels following the Paris attacks, Abdeslam hid for four months in an apartment hosting members of a local jihadist cell.

He was arrested days before suicide attacks that killed 32 people and injured hundreds at Brussels airport and a metro station in March 2016.

A Belgian jury decided he was one of the co-planners of those attacks.

His transfer back to France had been blocked by a Brussels court over concerns it contravened the European Convention of Human Rights.

Abdeslam's lawyer, Delphine Paci, told the French news agency AFP on Wednesday: "They came to get him in his cell at 9am this morning ... There was clearly collusion between the Belgian state and the French state to violate a court decision."

Abdeslam's lawyers have argued he should be allowed to serve his sentence in Belgium, where he grew up and has family ties despite holding French citizenship.

"This is clearly about a kind of thirst for revenge that has taken precedence over the rule of law," Paci said.

(with AFP)