Salah Abdeslam, Paris attacks suspect, refuses to speak at French court hearing

The last known survivor of the team that carried out last November's Paris attacks refused to talk during questioning Friday by anti-terror judges and the session ended abruptly.

Salah Abdeslam's lawyer, Frank Berton said his client invoked his right to silence.

• Key suspect in Paris attacks handed over to French authorities
• Salah Abdeslam charged with attempted murder in Belgium

Abdeslam, 26, had said last month he wanted to explain all. Berton told reporters that Abdeslam was disturbed by the 24-hour video surveillance in his maximum-security cell and called the practice illegal.

"He can't tolerate being watched on video 24 hours a day," Berton said. "Psychologically that makes things difficult."

Friday was the first time Abdeslam was questioned since his extradition from Belgium last month. At that point, Berton said his client wanted to talk to investigators and explain his path to radicalization. It was unclear why the suspect changed his mind.

Lawyers for the victims and their families said they hadn't expected any sort of repentance from Abdeslam, but authorities want more information about his activities prior to the attacks, according to freelance reporter Catherine Field. 

"Abdeslam was criss-crossing Europe. He was in Greece, he was in Austria, in Hungary and Germany," Field told CBC News from Paris.

"He was meeting people, mixing in with different networks there. That is what the police want to know — who was he mixing with? Who were the links between Paris, Brussels and the so-called Islamic State? Those are the key bits of this whole jigsaw that the police don't yet feel confident that they have."

Months on the run

Abdeslam, a French citizen of Moroccan origin, was handed a half-dozen preliminary terrorism charges after his transfer on April 27 from Belgium, where he was arrested after four months on the run.

He is the only suspect still alive believed to have played a direct role in the Nov. 13 bloodshed at a concert hall, stadium and Parisian cafes, which killed 130 people. The other attackers died in suicide bombings or under police fire.

Abdeslam's precise role in the attacks has never been clear. The Paris prosecutor has said he was equipped as a suicide bomber, but abandoned his plans and fled to Belgium, where he had grown up. Abdeslam's older brother blew himself up at a cafe during the Paris attacks.

Abdeslam was captured March 18 at a hideout near his childhood home in Brussels' Molenbeek neighbourhood. Four days later, suicide bombers detonated their explosives in the Brussels airport and metro, killing 32 people.