Paris Attacks Trial Halted After Suspect Gets Covid

Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jan, 2022 ) :The trial over the deadly November 2015 terror attacks in Paris has been suspended after a second suspect tested positive for Covid-19, sources close to the case told AFP on Monday.

Ali El Haddad Asufi, accused of helping prepare the massacres that killed 130 people, began showing symptoms at hearings last Friday, the presiding judge in the marathon trial Jean-Louis Peries, wrote to lawyers.

"That means the coming week is in jeopardy because a new test will not be carried out until Friday," he wrote.

That would postpone key testimony expected from Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor among the 10 assailants who targeted the Stade de France stadium, the Bataclan concert hall and several bars and restaurants in the capital on Friday November 13, 2015.

Abdeslam was scheduled to begin two days of questioning starting Thursday.

He tested positive for Covid at the end of December, delaying the hearings for several days.

Abdeslam's 10 co-defendants are answering charges ranging from providing logistical support to planning the attacks, as well as supplying weapons.

The trial is to last until May.