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Trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015: what will remain?
Audio 17:18
Sketch showing Salah Abdeslam during the reading of the verdict during the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, June 29, 2022. © Benoit PEYRUCQ / AFP
By: Alexandra Cagnard Follow
2 mins
On June 29, 2022, the Special Assize Court of Paris delivered its verdict in the trial of the November 13 attacks.
All defendants were found guilty.
The sentences range from two years in prison, for the weakest, to incompressible life, the heaviest sentence in French criminal law.
After 149 days of hearings, what will remain of this trial?
Nathanaël Vittrant, journalist in charge of justice at RFI, looks back on the highlights.
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This episode of
Witnesses to the News
opens with a description of the atmosphere that reigned before and during the reading of the verdict: "
There were a lot of people
," says
Nathanaël Vittrant
.
An atmosphere that is both light and very tense.
Some who had not seen each other for a long time were happy to find each other.
And then when the magistrates returned to the room, there was a great silence.
There is this rather strong image all the same of this destiny.
The fate of these 14 people who will play out and in parallel, that of the very many civil parties, the victims, the families of the victims who are in the room and who are waiting for justice to be done
”.
Nathanaël also evokes dignity throughout this trial: “
I saw with Laura Martel and Marine de La Moissonnière
(Editor’s note: who also covered this trial for RFI
) an evolution over the hearings.
The participants in this trial tamed each other.
We have seen rapprochements between civil parties, but also with the defense and the accused who appeared free
”.
We also raise the question of the post-trial for the civil parties.
“
There is both a part of them that is happy that this trial is over, that a page is turned, but at the same time the fear of emptiness too.
Especially for those who were there almost every day during those ten months.
For some, these hearings also made it possible to piece together the pieces of a puzzle.
They found each other.
People who did not know each other, but who were together at the Bataclan or on the terraces, who then separated, to meet again six years later in the courtroom and who will separate again
”.
Asked whether he feels he has experienced something exceptional by following this trial, Nathanaël replies: “
It's a rather unique experience.
If I had been told on the first day of the trial that I would see defendants and victims hugging each other, moments when everyone in the room was laughing, I would never have believed it
”.
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Trial of the attacks of November 13
France
Justice
Terrorism
Paris attacks
Our guests
Nathanael Vittrant
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