The mother of two of the alleged Paris terrorists said her oldest son didn’t mean to harm anyone when he blew himself up and blames “stress” as a possible explanation.
Her oldest son, Ibrahim, detonated a suicide vest that failed to kill anyone but himself. Her youngest son, Salah, is believed to be the mastermind behind the attacks and is currently being chased around the world. But Faklan Abdeslam stands by her boys.
“Maybe the explosives went off prematurely by accident. Maybe it was stress,” she said in a statement to reporters read by her nephew. “We even saw him [Ibrahim] two days before the attacks. There were no signs that they had plans to do anything violent.”
The biggest indication that Ibrahim Abdeslam didn’t mean to harm anyone was the fact that he failed to take any lives, according to his mother.
“This was not his plan, that’s for sure,” she said. “The fact that his bomb belt exploded without killing anyone else says a lot.”
Middle brother Mohammed was questioned by Belgian police after the attack and spoke with reporters after getting cleared Monday.
He said the family had no idea that the brothers were even in Paris and much less that they had been radicalized.
“We don’t know what has happened to Ibrahim and Salah,” he said. “I did not know that they had been radicalized. I found out about it on the TV like everyone else.”
Mohamed Abdeslam offered condolences to the victims but asked media to respect the family’s privacy.
“I am affected by what happened … I think of the victims, of the families of the victims,” he said. “But you will also understand that we have a mother, we have a family.”
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