At the trial of the November 13 attacks, the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) on Friday demanded the maximum expected, incompressible life imprisonment, against Salah Abdeslam, the only member still alive of the November 13 commandos who caused the death of 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis. “For the victims, the very fact that the justice of the Republic passes after such a long delay is the important point that contributes to resilience”, confides Philippe Duperron, president of the association 13onze15 Fraternité et Vérité and father of a victim of the Bataclan, Saturday June 11 on franceinfo.
>> NARRATIVE. “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
The floor will be given to the defense from Monday and for two weeks. The verdict is expected on June 29.
franceinfo: How did you experience this trial, personally? Does this help to understand? Does it bring back the pain? Or does it soothe, on the contrary?
Philippe Duperron: It’s a bit of all of these. We were waiting for this trial because it was necessary, it was important that it take place. This step is essential in the reconstruction of all the victims and therefore, we are indeed satisfied to have arrived, to finally see the end of this long crossing that we have experienced.
The requisitions, the sentences requested, the convictions at the end of the day, is that what will count or is it the judicial process?
It is indeed first of all the judicial process. Of course, conviction matters. She is important. We have seen the indictment of the Advocates General, the surgical precision that they put into the reporting of the facts, by repeating each of the assertions of the defendants and each attempt to counter it by the defence. All of this has been carefully taken up to arrive at an extremely rigorous indictment. It is true that the sentences are the high point and the end point of the criminal trial, but for the victims, the very fact that the justice of the Republic passes after such a long delay is the important point which contributes to resilience.
>> Trial of the attacks of November 13: “I am satisfied that in an exceptional event, there are exceptional sentences”, reacts a victim
It’s a bit like what the Advocate General said yesterday: “The verdict will not heal the wounds but it will ensure the last word for justice.”
That’s absolutely exactly it. For the victims, this is the most important point. I think the penalties are ultimately incidental. Moreover, it is to be feared that an appeal will be lodged, but this appeal will never be as important as this trial. The trial at first instance, the confrontation of the defendants with their victims, is really the key moment.
Precisely, what did you expect from the defendants you were confronted with, and what do you say about their attitude during this trial?
We were among those who considered that we should not be held to the word of the accused. It was finally putting oneself in a position of being a victim again because one knew that the word they were going to deliver was very likely to be either incomplete or misleading. This is what was noted in the indictment. And finally, today, the defendants are paying the price for their attitude in court. Some have confined themselves to their right to silence and this is pointed out very concretely, and very precisely by the general counsel Camille Hennetier. Others have delivered us incomplete or false truths, there too, the term was used by Mrs. Hennetier. And this is the case of Salah Abdeslam who told us a bizarre story. In the end, we don’t know anything, and that’s what they were accused of: for not delivering any truth, any additional information or any repentant.