The main defendant in the trial over the 2015 Paris attacks has denied killing or hurting anybody.
Prosecutors say Salah Abdeslam, 32, is the only surviving member of the IS cell that targeted Paris that night, killing 130 people.
In court on Wednesday, he restated his support for the Islamic State group, but said he chose at the last minute not to detonate his explosives.
Salah Abdeslam is the only defendant to be directly accused of murder.
Prosecutors believe his suicide belt malfunctioned before he escaped, but Abdeslam said he had changed his mind.
“I wanted to say today that I didn’t kill anyone, and I didn’t hurt anyone. Not even a scratch,” he said in a sudden outburst before being cross-examined in court for the first time.
He told the court the attacks were carried out to force an end to France’s military involvement in Syria and Iraq.
In total, 20 people are on trial. Only 14 defendants are present – the remaining six are being tried in absentia.
A spokesperson for the families of those who died said they don’t expect to ever understand the motivation.
“When I look at him, it’s just a feeling of incomprehension. How could he do what he did, what they did?” Philippe Duperron, whose son was killed at the Bataclan concert hall, told France 2 television.
The attacks took place on 13 November 2015 when a 10-man squad of heavily armed jihadists targeted several sites across Paris.
Nine of the attackers either blew themselves up or were shot dead. French-Moroccan Salah Abdeslam is thought to be the last survivor of the group.
It is believed that he travelled to Paris from his home in Brussels along with the other attackers and was intending to blow himself up. Why he failed to do so – technical malfunction or a last-minute change of mind – is a key question the victims’ families want answered.
In court he suggested he made the decision not to detonate the explosives himself after having a moment of doubt, seeing people sitting outside cafes dressed up, just like he would have done.
“I experienced a situation that not many people have experienced, people who took a step back, who changed their minds,” he said.
“When you’re in solitary confinement, you ask yourself: ‘Was I right to step back, or should I have done it?’ And you say to yourself: ‘I should have detonated that thing.'”
The trial is expected to last nine months, and is the biggest in modern French history with 1,800 civil plaintiffs taking part.
Salah Abdeslam faces a life sentence if convicted. He has already been handed a jail sentence by a Belgian court for his part in a shootout with police that led to his arrest. (BBC)
