France Aims To Prevent Suicide Of Paris Attacks Suspect: Victim's Father

Paris: France will take particular care to prevent a suicide in prison of the only suspected participant in November 13 Paris attacks to be captured alive, the country's justice minister assured families of victims on Monday, the father of one victim said.

Salah Abdeslam, the 26-year-old Belgium-born Frenchman captured in Brussels last week after four months on the run, has been cooperating with police investigators in the past few days and is "worth his weight in gold", his lawyer earlier said.

"The justice minister said it was important to prevent the risk of suicide so that Salah Abdeslam can be judged," Georges Salines, the head of a victims group and father of a young woman who was killed at the Bataclan concert hall, told reporters.

Groups representing families of the victims were received by President Francois Hollande and Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas for an hour and a half at the Elysee palace as France waited for Abdeslam to be handed over.

"It will take a week, two weeks or three months, but he will come here and we'll be able to ask him questions," Jean Reinhart, a lawyer for victims of the attacks at the Bataclan.

"And that's extraordinary, because there will be a trial, with a bench and someone sat on it," he said.