(Paris) The fourteen defendants of the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 in France present before the special assize court of Paris have a last opportunity to express themselves on Monday before the professional judges begin their deliberation and render their verdict expected Wednesday evening.
Posted at 10:16 p.m.
The final hearing of this river trial that began in September, the longest in post-war French criminal judicial history, is due to start at 9:30 a.m. As provided by law, each defendant will be invited to speak. by President Jean-Louis Périès.
Virtually silent during the investigation, Salah Abdeslam – the only surviving member of the commandos who caused the death of 130 people in Paris and nearby Saint-Denis on November 13, 2015 – spoke a lot during the hearing.
The 32-year-old Frenchman was ambivalent, oscillating between arrogance when he proclaimed himself an “Islamic State fighter” on the first day of the hearing and compassion when he presented, with tears streaming down his cheeks, his “condolences and (his) apologies to all the victims”. He explained that he had given up using his explosive belt in a bar in the 18th arrondissement of Paris out of “humanity”.
“Whatever people say, this trial would not have been the same at all if Salah Abdeslam had remained silent. There would have been a deep feeling of failure if that had been the case, ”said his lawyer Martin Vettes on Friday during the final pleadings.
Not convinced by Salah Abdeslam’s “balancing act” who systematically sought to “minimize the facts”, the national anti-terrorism prosecution (Pnat) requested incompressible life imprisonment against him, the heaviest sanction allowed by French law, which makes the possibility of release very small.
It is equivalent to a “slow death sentence”, denounced Salah Abdeslam’s other lawyer, Ms.e Olivia Ronen.
Another defendant against whom life was requested, with a security period of 22 years, Mohamed Abrini, childhood friend of Salah Abdeslam. He also spoke a lot during the hearing, acknowledging that he was “scheduled for November 13”, but he remained stingy with explanations of his renunciation.
Monday’s hearing is the last opportunity to clarify his role. “He never ceased to doubt,” said his lawyer Marie Violleau last week.
Will they talk?
Will they come out of their silence?
Three other defendants against whom the Pnat requested life imprisonment – Osama Krayem, Sofien Ayari and Mohamed Bakkali – preferred to remain silent during the proceedings.
“Nobody is here to try to understand what happened and get answers. […] This trial is an illusion,” Osama Krayem said in January through his lawyer, Ms.e Margaux Durand-Poincloux.
The 29-year-old Swede also refused to attend the hearings except when the civil parties spoke.
“I have already been sentenced to twenty years (in Belgium in 2018 for shooting at police officers, editor’s note). There, I risk perpetuity. And then I go back to Belgium, where there will be a third trial (in September, for the March 2016 attacks, editor’s note) with the same questions, the same themes, the same people. Am I going to defend myself like a dog to pick up 80 years behind? For guys like me, having hope is dangerous,” said Tunisian Sofien Ayari to justify his silence.
If it persists, the silence of Osama Krayem and Sofien Ayari – who, according to the prosecution, renounced for unknown reasons to carry out an attack at Amsterdam-Schiphol airport on the same evening as the attacks in Paris and in Saint-Denis – will not allow this gray area of the trial to be lifted.
Mohamed Bakkali explained that his word had “no value”. “I am in a situation where everything is unfavorable […] Whatever I do, everything will be considered a ruse, ”he said in January, asserting his right to silence.
The floor will also be given to the nine other defendants appearing before the court since September 8 and against whom sentences ranging from five years’ imprisonment to twenty years’ imprisonment have been requested.
In addition to these fourteen men, the court judges six people by default, therefore five presumed dead in the Iraqi-Syrian zone.