Mohamed Abdeslam, places candles on a window ledge of the family's apartment during a vigil in Brussels' Molenbeek district town square, on November 18, 2015. | EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images Abdeslam’s brother: Salah was ‘manipulated’ In televised interview, Mohammed Abdeslam said he was unaware his brothers had become radicalized.

The brother of at-large Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam made a televised appeal Sunday for his brother to turn himself in to authorities.

“I would rather see my brother in prison than in a cemetery,” Mohammed Abdeslam said in an interview with Belgian national broadcaster RTBF.

The statement came as Salah Abdeslam was still being sought in an intense manhunt in Brussels and elsewhere in connection with the November 13 Paris attacks, which left 130 dead and hundreds wounded. The Belgian capital was in its second day of lockdown, with armed troops on the streets, after the government announced it believed another attack was imminent.

Mohammed's other brother, Ibrahim, blew himself up in the Paris attacks. Mohammed told RTBF that he was unaware Salah and Ibrahim had become radicalized.

"When your brother starts praying, it’s not necessarily a radicalist change," he said. "When your brother tells you that they will stop drinking, it’s not a radicalist change. They were only people that wanted to become better, from our point of view, and be a bit more respectful in their religion."

Mohammed said he believed his brothers had been “manipulated” and that he was convinced Salah backed out of the attack at the last minute.

“Salah is very intelligent," Mohammed said. "At the last moment he decided to turn back. He saw something which didn’t correspond with what he was expecting and backed out. I remind you that at the moment, we don’t know if he killed anyone, if he was actually on the scene.”

Mohammed was detained for 36 hours immediately after the attacks, before being released.

“If the judge released me, it’s because I’ve got nothing to hide,” he said, adding he had given investigators full access to his mobile phone.

Mohammed explained he came forward to speak Sunday after many media requests at his home in Molenbeek, because he wanted to show another side of his family than that appearing in the media.

He urged Salah to hand himself in to authorities, to give his family and the family of the Paris victims the answers they are looking for.