Ann-Laure Decadt terror attack trial starts Monday: “Rollercoaster of emotions for the family”

Eight people died in the attack. Ann-Laure was on a city trip in New York, together with her mother and sisters. “They had rented a bicycle and initially wanted to take a different route. But it was the owner of the bicycle shop who advised them to cycle via the Hudson River, because it was safer there,” says the lawyer for the next of kin Johan Heymans.

At the wrong time, in the wrong place, to say the least. “It’s a bad combination of circumstances. It couldn’t be more coincidental.”

Capital punishment

The US Attorney General is demanding the death penalty for the perpetrator. “The trial has been postponed for years due to additional investigations, corona and because there first seemed to be an agreement for the sentence of the defendant in order to avoid the death penalty. Now there is finally a trial,” says lawyer Heymans. (Continue reading below the video.)