BRUSSELS — The judges were there, the lawyers and the press — so many journalists that there was a spillover room. The only person largely missing from the trial was the high-profile defendant, the only surviving member of the group accused of carrying out terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015 and Brussels in 2016.

Salah Abdeslam, 28, who defied a dragnet of French and Belgian police for more than four months as he hid in his hometown haunts after fleeing the attacks in Paris, poked a finger again at the authorities, this time in court.

When asked whether he had anything to say or if he would respond to questions, he was brief and clear: “I defend myself by remaining silent.”

He had one more message: He did not believe the court could render a just verdict.

“What I observe is that Muslims are judged, treated in the worst of ways,” he said. “They are judged mercilessly. There is no presumption of innocence, there is nothing, we’re immediately guilty, voilà. My silence does not mean that I am guilty.”