PARIS – The long journey that began ten months ago in the Courthouse of the Ile de la Cité ends today. This afternoon the special Court of Assizes of the maxi-trial for the attacks of 13 November 2015 al Bataclan e Stade de France will make the sentence public. The court headed by the president Jean-Louis Peries has withdrawn in the last few hours to deliberate in a barracks in the Paris region kept top secret for security reasons. In total there are twenty defendants in the trial: the 14 who directly participated in the attacks of six years plus another six tried in absentia (5 are given for dead). The required sentences range from 5 years to life imprisonment.
Bataclan, the trial of the century told by Emanuel Carrère. Anguish of imminent death
by Emmanuel Carrère
Salah Abdeslam
The most awaited decision is the one on the fate of Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the jihadist commando that that night caused 130 deaths and 350 injuries. “I was wrong but I’m not a killer” were the last words of Abdeslam at the end of the maxi-trial which lasted 148 days. “It’s true, I made mistakes, but I’m not a murderer, I’m not a killer, if you convict me of murder, you would commit an injustice” continued the former red primrose, for many months the most wanted man in Europe before the capture on March 16, 2016 in Molenbeeka district of Brussels, has shown himself ambivalent, oscillating between the arrogance of the early days, when he proclaimed himself “fighter of the Islamic State”, to when, at the end, he expressed “condolences and apologies to the victims”.
Bataclan, the trial of the century told by Emanuel Carrère. The knights of criminal law
by Emmanuel Carrère
The maximum penalty
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) has asked for the heaviest sentence of the penal code: life imprisonment with an incompressible safety period, which makes any possibility of release very low. The 32-year-old Belgian-Moroccan adopted during the trial “a strategy of constant minimization of the facts” underlines the accusation. Salah Abdeslam, who claimed at the hearing that he gave up his explosive vest “for humanity”, is “neither a psychopath nor a sociopath,” insisted one of his lawyers, Olivia Ronen. He is an “executor deserter”, but the sanction requested is worthy of a “military court” that judges “enemies” and not “defendants”, he has vilified his colleague Martin Vettes.
Attack on the Bataclan, the hour of judgment for Salah Abdeslam, a failed suicide bomber
by our correspondent Marco Cicala
Six years after a night of terror that traumatized France and after a long trial marked by the chilling testimonies of nearly 400 survivors or relatives in the stand – out of nearly 2,600 civil parties – the defense lawyers have warned the court against the temptation of a “exceptional justice” driven by emotion. On 8 September, the first day of the trial, the president had called for “compliance with the law”. The penalties requested against the 20 defendants range from five years to life imprisonment, even for the “accomplices” of the attacks, all members of the same jihadist cell whose commandos were “interchangeable” according to prosecutors. A life sentence was also asked for Osama Atar, leader of the Islamic State group and director of the attacks, who is presumed to have died in Syria.