The “historic” trial of the Bataclan attacks comes to an end

The “historical” The trial of the attacks on the Bataclan and the Parisian terraces concludes this Wednesday. The Paris Court will pronounce the sentence of the 20 accused -six tried in his absence-, including Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the jihadist commando that bloodied the French capital that fateful November 13, 2015 Almost a year has passed since the beginning in September of this process that will remain in the annals of the French Justice, both for its dimension and its relevance. Thousands of victims, hundreds of lawyers and five judges participated in the trial of the alleged perpetrators and accomplices of the attack deadliest of the Islamic State (IS) in Europe.

The prosecution requested a high penalties for most defendants. He requested a punishment of non-reviewable life sentence for Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini, involved in the preparation of the attacks in Paris and then also in Brussels in March 2016. He also weighs a possible punishment of reviewable life sentence, after an imprisonment of 22 or 30 years, for other members of that command, such as the Swedish Osama Krayem or the Algerian Adel Haddadi. Then the penalties decrease when they affect those considered second swords of the attacks in the Bataclan concert hall, the terraces and in the Stade de France. A jihadist violence that left a trail of 131 dead and more than 400 wounded.

The defendants had their last words before the court presided over by Jean-Louis Périès on Monday. The most emotional testimonies were those of the alleged accomplices, who appear free after allegedly collaborating without knowing the real consequences of their favors. “I am very afraid that you will make a mistake. (…) I am not a terrorist, I have never been a terrorist. I accompanied Abrini to the airport, but I never knew what he was planning, never & rdquor ;, said Abdellah Chouaa, who can be sentenced to six years in prison. “Wait get my life back before, but it will never be the same & rdquor ;, added Ali Oukaldi, who is being asked for five years in prison after having accompanied Abdeslam on a single trip to Brussels.

The “evolution” of Abdeslam’s speech

“I have made mistakes, but I am not a murderer & rdquor ;, Abdeslam defended himself in his last appearance in court, in which he complained of “harassment day and night & rdquor; during his incarceration in solitary confinement. After having starred in disconcerting interrogations with the judges, the only survivor of the command present in Paris – the other nine blew themselves up or were shot by the police – changed his speech throughout the judicial process. At the first hearing in September, after years of almost permanent silence, he presented himself as “a servant of IS & rdquor ;. But, six months later, he said that he had “given up blowing up his belt with explosives”.

In another hearing in April, She started to cry when he remembered his family “whom I made suffer a lot & rdquor ;. She also apologized to the victims. A few days earlier he had surprised the court by referring to a project for another attack that night in another bar in Paris to which he had gone after having accompanied some jihadists at the Stade de France. But in the end he resigned for “humanity & rdquor ;. Another member of the group had already given a similar version in an interrogation.

Did Abdeslam really resign? Or was he unable to blow himself up since his explosive belt was faulty, as pointed out by a police report? According to the prosecution, “he has remained faithful to his ideology and did not show any remorse & rdquor ;. The judges will decide if he is sentenced to a sentence that could leave this 32-year-old Frenchman with Moroccan roots behind bars for the rest of his life.

“A symbolic reparation & rdquor;

“There was no real repentance from Abdeslam & rdquor ;, says Dominique Kielemoes, vice president of the victims’ association 13Onze15: Fraternité et Verité. “There were hard times when the defendants they resumed their Salafist discourse, while in others they showed a more human side & rdquor ;, he affirms in statements to EL PERIÓDICO. Despite losing his son Victor Muñoz, a young Frenchman who spent his childhood in Barcelona, ​​in the attack on the terrace of La Belle Equipe, Kielemoes defends that “Justice in a democratic country should not be the retaliation law & rdquor;. “I think Abdeslam’s prison conditions should be lightened. Although he is serving a long prison sentence, this does not mean that he should go crazy & rdquor ;, he adds.

Despite being the trial of those responsible and accomplices, victims and family members played a predominant role, especially in those audiences in October in which they expressed their indelible pain on the stand. “The trial has been part of a symbolic reparation & rdquor ;, declares the lawyer Grégory Doranges, who represents one of the hundreds of civil parties. In the historic seat of the Court of Paris, in the heart of the city, a whole microecosystem developed over these nine months, with a certain human warmth, between victims, lawyers and journalists.

Related news

“I fear a certain nostalgic feeling and empty once it’s over & rdquor ;, acknowledges Christophe Naudin, secondary school teacher and survivor of the attacks. The author of the book Journal of a rescue from the Bataclan stands out as a positive aspect “that there has been no instrumentalization by the extreme right, despite some attempts by the polemicist Zemmour & rdquor ;. The hearings were not broadcast on television, as established by law in France. And despite the presence of former president François Hollande in one of the sessions, he did not influence the long presidential and legislative campaign.

With the end of this judicial process, France will partially heal the wounds of the wave of attacks of the last decade. A scar that will only be partial, since in September the judges will deal with another jihadist attack: the one that bloodied Nice on July 14, 2016.