“I am satisfied that in an exceptional event, really, there are exceptional penalties”reacts Friday June 10 on franceinfo Franck, one of the survivors of the attacks of November 13, 2015.
>> STORY. “They all had the same potential for death”: at the trial of the November 13 attacks, an implacable indictment against Salah Abdeslam and his co-defendants
After three days of requisitions, the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office demanded, on Friday, incompressible life imprisonment for Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the commandos who killed 130 people that night. Sentences of at least five years in prison were requested against the 19 other defendants. Frank recalls that “these are only the requisitions and not the verdict”which will be returned on June 29.
franceinfo: Are these requisitions up to what you expected?
Frank: Above all, I was waiting for the facts to be established, for the trial to be completed. Besides, I await the verdict. Justice is there because we victims, we could not give it. It is not possible. We have too much head in the handlebars. So yes, somewhere, I am satisfied with the work done, even if it took a long time. I am satisfied that in an exceptional event, really, there are exceptional penalties. But these are only the requisitions and not the verdict. I expect justice to be done and justice for our country. That’s the difference between those people and us. This is why there is the need for a trial. Justice will be done, I expect nothing else. But, if the penalties that have been proposed today can be followed, I don’t mind.
The defense arguments will begin on Monday and will last two weeks. Are you going to attend?
No, simply because I have plenty to do. I testified at the trial, I would have liked to attend the testimony of other friends, I followed the trial quite a bit on the web radio. Now, it’s still something quite heavy.
“It’s been seven years since this event has been imposed on us, I put a distance.”
Franck, one of the survivors of the attacks of November 13, 2015at franceinfo
But there is web radio. I will certainly strain my ears to listen to some defenses. I was able to follow this trial as I wanted. When I wanted to go there, I went there. When I wanted to listen, I listened. Same when there was a ras-le-bol.
What did you learn during the trial? Have you changed with this trial?
I change every day because a trauma like that… At first you think there is only the attack. And then afterwards, we realize the Russian dolls, it’s the matryoshkas: every day, we discover something. What I discovered is that there were many, many, many means for the trial of the century. I was very admiring of that. But, I don’t want to accuse anyone but was there so much effort made to prevent the event? This is the question I was still asking myself earlier.
Did this trial calm you down?
To have testified, yes. It was very personal, it was really a score to settle. It calmed me down because I saw friends or people I didn’t know finally being able to drop something. I saw a lot of humanity. But personally, what especially appeased me was very symbolically the Eagles of Death Metal concert which took place on April 26 [à l’Olympia], during the trial. I haven’t been back to see them since. [les attentats]. Strangely, this is what calmed me down the most. Then, I started writing to try to put down my story, my testimony. Somehow it’s cathartic.