Belgian-Moroccan Defendant Denies Involvement in 2015 Paris Terror Attacks Trial

Abdellah Chouaa, a Belgian of Moroccan origin, is one of the 14 accused present at this trial of the November 13 attacks, which will come to an end in three months. He is said to be close to Mohamed Abrini, accused of having participated in the preparations for the terrorist attacks. According to the prosecution, Abdellah Chouaa helped the cell that prepared the Bataclan and terrace massacres by opening the road by car for Mohamed Bakkali, Osama Krayem and Sofien Ayari on October 2, 2015, reports Ouest France. They were heading to the hideout in Charleroi, used before the commando’s departure for the Paris region on November 12, 2015.

At the stand, Abdellah Chouaa rejects these accusations: "I was unaware of the existence of this hideout, I never served as a lead car! I had an old Clio, I had to put water in the radiator every 15 minutes." Yet his phone was connected in Charleroi on October 2, 2015. "It’s probably because I was going to meet a girl there: I was single, registered on half a dozen dating sites," defends the man who will be 41 in a few days. But "the Charleroi meeting on October 2, 2015 would have lasted only 13 minutes," suspects one of the three prosecutors. "Maybe I didn’t like that girl," the oldest of the accused responds.

His lawyer Sorrentino takes up his defense. "None of the 1,276 recordings made proved relevant. Similarly, the investigators did not exploit the dating sites and the 9,717 photos, mostly female, found on his mobile phone," she said about the wiretapping of her client’s phone.