Paris attacks suspect 'gone silent' since arrest

Key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has "invoked his right to silence" and not spoken to investigators since a few brief interviews on Saturday, the day after his arrest in central Brussels, the federal prosecutor said.

A statement from the prosecutor said that that because Abdeslam was wounded in the leg and needed hospital treatment after his March 18 arrest, investigators waited until the following day, Saturday March 19, to question him.

A first round of questioning began at 8:00am, lasted two hours and went over the details of the November 13 Paris attacks which left 130 people dead, a statement said.

A second round took place later the same day, with the examining magistrate detailing the grounds of his arrest for about an hour, it said.

The hearing then turned to the European Arrest Warrant issued by the French authorities seeking his extradition to France "but during this last session, Abdeslam invoked his right to silence and has made no further comment", the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor said investigators saw Abdeslam again on Tuesday, immediately after the bomb attacks on Brussels airport and the metro which killed 31 people and wounded some 300.

On this occasion, Abdeslam "refused to make the slightest declaration," the statement said.

He was seized days before the Brussels attacks, in which 31 people died. Twelve people were arrested on Thursday and Friday in three countries. Six were detained in Belgium on Thursday and three on Friday, though several were later released. Two were held in Germany and one in France, as a plot said to be in its advanced stages was foiled.