“There are strong expectations” towards France, assures a lawyer for victims’ families

Sacha Ghozlan was interviewed on Monday on Franceinfo, one year after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

“There are high expectations from families” with regard to France, assures Monday October 7 on franceinfo Sacha Ghozlan, lawyer at the Paris bar and co-founder of the Association of lawyers for families of victims of October 7. On this day of commemoration, one year after the Hamas attack, Emmanuel Macron receives Monday at the Élysée the families of two French hostages still held in Gaza.

“There is both a symbolic approach in being received at the Élysée, but also strong expectations from families”explains the lawyer. “France can do a lot. France is a member country of the United Nations Security Council, a nuclear power. France is the country which invented human rights, which offered them to the world”he explains. “French families are turning to the President of the Republic, to the Head of State because they expect him to intervene in the negotiations, to do everything in his power to obtain the release of these hostages”, he continues.

A ceremony is also organized this Monday by Crif, in the presence of Michel Barnier, to pay tribute to the victims of the October 7 attack. Sacha Ghozlan evokes the feeling of abandonment of the families of the hostages still in the hands of Hamas. “They have the general feeling that the fate of the hostages takes second place and that we talk more about the different wars that Israel is waging on different fronts than about the fate of the hostages. he explains.

But “the families know that complaints have been filed in Paris, that the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has opened a preliminary investigation for offenses linked to a terrorist enterprise that, moreover, France is the only country in the world to have organized a national tribute to pay tribute, at the time, to the 42 French victims of October 7”he recalls. Moreover, “France very quickly began a process of compensating victims of terrorism, as may be the case for the victims of November 13 or the Nice attacks.” he emphasizes.

The lawyer confirms that“there is no proof of life“hostages “who are known to families” to this day. But “proof of life dating from a few weeks ago does not mean that they are still alive,” he specifies.