Paris attacks suspect extradited to France from Belgium

BRUSSELS: Salah Abdeslam, suspected of playing a major part in November´s Paris attacks which killed 130 people, has been extradited to France from Belgium, prosecutors in both countries said on Wednesday.

Abdeslam, 26, was Europe´s most wanted fugitive until his capture in Brussels on March 18 after a four-month manhunt. He is set to appear before French judges later on Wednesday.

"Salah Abdeslam has been handed over to the French authorities this morning," Belgium´s federal prosecutors said in a statement, declining to give any further details.

Frank Berton, a high-profile French criminal lawyer, said he would lead Abdeslam´s defence and had visited his client for more than two hours last week in his prison cell in Belgium along with the Abdeslam´s Belgian lawyer Sven Mary.

Investigators have said Abdeslam told them he had arranged logistics for the Nov. 13 attacks and had planned to blow himself up at a sports stadium in Paris but backed out at the last minute.

He is suspected of having rented two cars used to transport the attackers to and within the French capital.