“I’m going to explain myself because this is the last time I can do it,’ he said while being cross-examined in April.
“I’m going to do the best I can, I’m going to do my best,’ he said, as he complained about his portrayal in the media.
Abdeslam said he had first been told about the plans for the attack by Abdelhamid Abaaoud – the leader of the Isis cell, who died in an explosion afterwards.
“He told me about blowing myself up and it was a shock,’ said Abdeslam. ‘I was thinking of going to Syria. I didn’t feel ready.”
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Days after his arrest in March 2016 after a four-month manhunt that ended in a shootout in Brussels, suicide bombers alleged to be part of the same cell struck at the city’s airport and on the city Metro, killing 32 and injuring hundreds.
Abdeslam has already been sentenced in Brussels to 20 years in prison for the shootout that accompanied his arrest.
Also facing life in prison was Mohamed Abrini, Abdeslam’s 36-year-old childhood friend, who is believed to have travelled to the Paris region with the attackers.
Abrini was later captured on CCTV with the two Brussels airport bombers and became known as ‘The Man in the Hat’.
The investigation into all those involved in the Paris trial took six years and its written conclusions stretch to 53 metres (174 feet) when lined up.
Around 450 plaintiffs – wounded victims and relatives of those who died – appeared in court to recount their ordeals.
The Paris attacks trial will ‘stand as a landmark for justice,’ said Philippe Duperron, whose son was killed in the Bataclan.
