*UPDATED WITH PARIS PROSECUTOR STATEMENT
PARIS (AA) – A chief suspect in last November’s terrorist attacks in Paris was extradited to France overnight, according to the Paris Prosecutor’s Office.
A Brussels court approved Salah Abdeslam’s transfer to France on March 31.
“In implementation of a European arrest warrant issued March 19, 2016 by the investigating judges in charge of the criminal investigation into the attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, Salah Abdeslam was extradited today to the French authorities,” said the prosecutor in a statement.
“The arrest warrant was applied on him after arriving at 9:05 am (local time) on the [French] national territory.”
The prosecutor said Abdeslam will stand before judges during the day and “the prosecution will seek their provisional detention.”
The 26-year-old was arrested in March in a police raid in the Belgian capital’s suburb of Molenbeek.
He had been the target of an international manhunt for four months following the November attacks that killed 130 people across Paris.
Franck Berton, Abdeslam’s lawyer in France, told reporters he was unaware of the extradition.
