the hearing formally adjourned to Tuesday January 25 due to Covid-19

The fifth wave of the epidemic is definitely disrupting the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015. After two false starts due to Covid-19, the main defendant Salah Abdeslam having contracted the disease at the end of the year, the debates are again postponed. They will not resume until Tuesday, January 25 because of a new positive case among the accused, formally announced, Tuesday, January 18, President Jean-Louis Périès during an express hearing.

Ali El Haddad Asufi, one of 11 defendants appearing in custody, showed symptoms of Covid-19 in court on Friday and was tested positive. “He will not be able to come this week (…) we will therefore be able to resume the debates on the 25th, provided that his state of health allows it”, said the president of the special assize court during a hearing of less than half an hour, without the defendants who were not extracted.

He had already notified the parties by email, but the procedure – “quite rigorous, we should perhaps think about adapting it to our times”, noted the magistrate – requires that a hearing be held to formally dismiss the trial.

“Subject to another health problem” like the contamination of other defendants, seated relatively close to each other in a closed box and a room without windows, the trial will resume on Tuesday with the interrogation of Pakistani Muhammad Usman. That of the main accused Salah Abdeslam is now scheduled for February 9 and 10.