Paris (AFP)
"We hear nothing!", "The microphone!": Passes of arms on the wearing of the mask and technical problems parasitized on Thursday the second day of the historic trial of the January 2015 attacks in Paris, devoted to the examination of personalities of the accused.
"Can you ask him to repeat his answer to the first question again?"
For the fourth time in an hour, Me Marie-Laure Barré, lawyer for civil parties, interrupts the proceedings before the special assize court for a sound problem.
"Mr. President, something must be done," laments the lawyer, who participates in the hearing from one of the three broadcast rooms, where some speeches are deemed inaudible.
With the start of the coronavirus epidemic, it is another handicap for the organization of this extraordinary trial, the first in terrorism to be filmed in history, five after the bloody attacks on Charlie Hebdo, police and the Hyper Cacher store.
These attacks left 17 dead and sowed fear and consternation in France and throughout the world.
Five and a half years later, fourteen defendants are tried until November 10, including three by default.
All are suspected, to varying degrees, of logistical support to the Saïd and Chérif Kouachi brothers and Amédy Coulibaly, the perpetrators of these attacks killed by the police.
From the opening of the trial on Wednesday, the president of the special assize court Régis de Jorna reminded everyone of the obligation to wear a mask at all times.
Several lawyers were upset, worried that this measure would harm the defense of the accused.
"You are going to judge men whose faces you cannot see", denounced Me Beryl Brown, who defends one of the accused.
- "Bad Company" -
This argument was accepted by the court, which decided to allow the respondents and the lawyers to remove their masks to speak.
A decision regretted by Me Christian Saint-Palais, another defense counsel.
"If only one of us is contaminated, the trial will be suspended," he warns, pointing to an incongruity: "We remove the mask only when contamination is possible", via "postilions".
Face uncovered, Abdelaziz Abbad, 36, is the first accused Thursday to answer questions from the court.
"I've always said I'm innocent," he says from his window box, short brown hair and a clean shaven.
He claims to have "found himself in this story", which "screwed up his life" because of "bad company".
Suspected of having searched for and transported weapons for the perpetrators of the jihadist attacks of January 2015, Abdelaziz Abbad has been convicted on numerous occasions for drug trafficking and violence, but never in a terrorist case.
"In view of my career, I would never have been able to adhere to this ideology", maintains in a calm voice the accused.
In his "Muslim family, (Islam) has always been a religion of peace, that's how I was educated".
"For me, religion has never been to assassinate people," asserts Mr. Abbad, whose questioning will have been cut off by a suspension of hearing and several technical interruptions.
That of another accused, Michel Catino, 67, was cut short in the middle of the day, after yet another microphone problem.
"In (room) 2.03, can you hear us and do you see us? Obviously, you see us but we can't hear you", annoys President Régis de Jorna after this new interruption, which requires the intervention of a technician.
Several minutes pass, the problems remain.
"Good, the hearing is suspended", slices the president.
In the room, muffled sneers are heard.
Under the masks.
© 2020 AFP