Nine children have asked to testify in the trial which runs from April 22 to June 13.
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Children are preparing to testify for the first time at the appeal trial of the attack of July 14, 2016 in Nice, France Bleu Azur learned on Wednesday April 17. This appeal trial will be held from Monday until June 13 before the special assize court of Paris. Nine children asked to testify for the first time, identified the association “A Way of Children”.
Four days before the opening of the trial, these little victims were received at the Nice courthouse to visit the room from where they will be able to testify remotely. To avoid them having to move around and confront each other directly, a room has been set up.
“I want to say what I experienced, the fear I had… I didn’t tell the psychologists everything”, confides Kenza, 12, to France Bleu Azur. She was 4 years old on the evening of the attack and says she escaped the truck at the last minute. “What I’m going to say isn’t very good for a 4 year old to know, but I’ve grown up and what I couldn’t say before, now I can. I’ve prepared on several pages and my family will be there to support me, that will help me.”
3,000 children present on the evening of the attack
Yassin, 13, was also on the Promenade des Anglais: “I live with flashbacks, as soon as I hear news about attacks everything comes back to me (…) it’s difficult. I can’t say that I’m okay. This has repercussions at school .”
“There were 3,000 children present on the Promenade des Anglais and 700 were followed by the psychological unit specially created after the attack”indicates the lawyer for the association “Une pathway des enfants”, Marie-Pierre Lazard.
The terrorist attack with a ram truck on the evening of July 14, 2016 on the Promenade des Anglais left 86 dead and 458 injured. For this appeal trial before the Special Assize Court of Paris, two men who had been sentenced in December 2022 for their participation in a criminal terrorist association to 18 years of imprisonment are in the dock. In first instance, there were 2,542 civil parties and 133 lawyers.