The former lawyer to Salah Abdeslam — the key figure in the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks — is taking over the defense of Greek MEP Eva Kaili in the probe looking into alleged corruption in the European Parliament.
Sven Mary, a prominent criminal defense lawyer in Belgium, told POLITICO on Monday that he would take over from André Risopoulos, who has been representing Kaili until now.
“I’m taking over the torch,” Mary said in a text.
Kaili’s former lawyer, André Risopoulos, confirmed to POLITICO he was no longer in charge of the file, but declined to respond on why that’s the case.
Mary is a well-known attorney in Belgium, both because of his high-profile clients and because of his public appearances, for example in a human interest program about lawyers.
Outside of Belgium, Mary is mostly known as the lawyer who represented Abdeslam, the only only surviving member of the group that carried out the November 2015 Paris terror attacks, who was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Already before that, he was known as “lawyer of the devil” because of previous clients like Fouad Belkacem, who recruited young men to fight for the Islamic State. Mary is known as an outspoken figure in Belgian media and has stressed he is “not a lawyer who only wants to defend victims.”
Mary has also taken up other sorts of cases. He defended the family of Sanda Dia, who died following a brutal initiation ritual carried out by an exclusive club at KU Leuven university.