"We said from the beginning… that if our client remained silent we would quit his defense," Frank Berton told the BFMTV broadcaster.
The lawyers of Salah Abdeslam, the only known survivor of a group of Islamists who killed 130 people in Paris, said his refusal to talk was caused by 24-hours a day camera monitoring in his solitary confinement, conditions which Berton and Mary repeatedly tried and failed to get changed.
"We have seen him slide away. Being watched all the time, with infrared at night that drives one crazy, and that is a consequence of a political decision to put Abdeslam on continuous monitoring," Berton claimed.
The lawyers already informed Abdeslam they would no longer represent him on October 6, while he did not ask to be represented by anyone else.
The attacks on bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the Stade de France took place in Paris last November. Abdeslam, the 26-year-old French national of Moroccan origin, was arrested in Brussels on March 18 and has remained silent since his extradition to France on April 27.
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