The challenges of the trial of the January 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris
The courtroom of the courthouse in Paris where the trial of the January 2015 attacks will be held until November 10, 2020. REUTERS / Christian Hartmann
Text by: Marine de La Moissonnière Follow |
Laura Martel
4 min
Five and a half years after the so-called January 2015 attacks in Paris - at Charlie Hebdo, Montrouge and the Hyper Cacher at the Porte de Vincennes - an extraordinary trial opens in Assize Court on Wednesday.
The main defendants are dead.
What will the trial be used for in their absence?
Other issues are crucial, especially for the victims.
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In January 2015, for three days, France was plunged into terror.
Terrorist attacks have followed one another on the premises of the
Charlie Hebdo
newspaper
, in Montrouge in the Paris suburbs and finally, in the Hyper Cacher supermarket in eastern Paris.
In total, 17 people lost their lives.
Five years after the facts, the trial begins this Wednesday morning, before the Assize Court of Paris.
It will last two and a half months.
Fourteen people are on trial, but not the direct perpetrators of these attacks - the Kouachi brothers and Amédy Coulibaly were killed after the attacks - nor their sponsors.
But without the help of those who appear from this September 2 - or some of them in any case, this is what justice will have to determine - the three terrorists would not have been able to commit their crimes. .
This was emphasized earlier this week by Jean-François Ricard, national anti-terrorism prosecutor, on France Info.
In fact, some of the defendants face life imprisonment;
the majority of them face twenty years in prison.
Very heavy sentences decided at the end of the investigation.
Determine responsibilities
It will be difficult to prove who did what.
Who supplied the weapons?
Money ?
Logistical support?
How did the facts unfold?
Above all, judges will have to answer a crucial question: from what degree of involvement can we say that someone is an accomplice in an attack?
The trial could advance the truth and perhaps reveal secrets the investigation failed to uncover.
In any case, this is what some hope.
144 witnesses will be heard, fourteen experts called to the bar.
Maitre Safya Akorri, defense lawyer, is however on her guard.
She fears that in the absence of the main defendants,
accomplices
are being "
fabricated
".
"
I fear convictions for the example
", admits the lawyer.
“
This trial is held above all for the media and for society, so that we can close a page, an extremely deep scar for all of French society.
"
An important trial for the victims
This trial is also crucial for the victims.
Some of them just want justice to be done;
others are counting on these 49 days of hearings to continue to move forward, to rebuild themselves.
Survivors will come to testify at the bar.
This is the case, for example, of Lilian Lepère, this young man who had remained hidden eight and a half hours under a sink, without moving, in the printing press where the Kouachi brothers had entrenched themselves, before being shot by the police.
For Lilian Lepère, it will be very painful to be present at the Assize Court but he insists on doing so, as his lawyer, Maître Antoine Casubolo Ferro explains: "
He expects this trial to be true for him. but also for other victims.
He is the last to have not seen, but heard the Kouachi alive.
His testimony will therefore be important in reconstructing the facts.
That's why he agreed to come.
He's not someone who wanted to be famous.
"
A filmed trial for history
The testimony of Lilian Lepère, next week, will be filmed as the entire trial.
This is a first in terms of terrorism.
A technical control room has been installed in the courtroom.
The images of the 49 days of hearing will be kept in the archives of the justice which therefore judged that this trial was truly worthy of interest.
► Listen again:
An
extraordinary
device for the trial of the January 2015 attacks
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