A Thalys train, March 7, 2012 in Seclin, in the north of France -

PHILIPPE HUGUEN AFP

  • Four men, involved in the attack on a Thalys connecting Paris to Amsterdam in August 2015, have been appearing before the special assize court since mid-November.

    A passenger was seriously injured.

  • Ayoub El Khazzani, who opened fire inside the train, must answer for "attempted assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise" and "criminal terrorist association".

    This Moroccan citizen, then 26 years old, was acting on the instruction of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, coordinator of the terrorist cell that struck France and Belgium in 2015 and 2016.

  • This Monday, the lawyers for the civil parties took the stand to plead.

    The verdict is expected Thursday.

At the special assize court in Paris,

There are those who are afraid to take the train.

Those who fall ill every year around August 21.

Those who have nightmares every night and those who suffer from depression.

Throughout their pleadings, the lawyers for the civil parties recalled this Monday at the bar of the Special Assize Court the traumas suffered for five years by the passengers of the Thalys in which Ayoub El Khazzani, a jihadist now aged 31 years old, opened fire.

“We do not come out of an attack unscathed.

Even if it is only an attempt, we survive it ”, underlines Me Chantal Bonnard, the first to speak.

The lawyer defends several travelers, including Damien A., a 33-year-old "courageous and discreet" young man who was the first to try to control the shooter, Ayoub El Khazzani, as the latter came out of the toilet armed with a Kalashnikov and a pistol.

The life of her client, who worked as a consultant for a large French bank, "has been completely turned upside down", she insists, adding that he is still subject to "symptoms of post-traumatic stress".

On August 21, 2015, the 300 or so Thalys passengers were “promised to death, all without distinction,” continues the black dress.

A story that "does not hold water"

Returning from the capital of the Netherlands where they had spent a few days of vacation, the actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, his two children and his ex-girlfriend "believed that their last hour had arrived", explains their lawyer, Me Anne Alcaraz.

“Their trauma is real.

"All the witnesses of the facts who came to testify during the trial were survivors", but also "victims", adds the lawyer of the French Association of victims of terrorism, Me Antoine Casubolo.

They all present "the same symptoms, the same fears, the same nightmares which prevent them from returning to a normal life".

The accused has always affirmed that he intended to kill only members of the European Commission and American soldiers whom Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the coordinator of the November 13 attacks, allegedly designated him as a target.

He would have given it up at the last moment.

How to believe him, when he had "no element" allowing to identify them?

And why did you take so much ammunition to kill a small number of people?

Me Alcaraz is convinced that El Khazzani had deliberately chosen this train which was "the most crowded" of the day, and that he "never gave up" his plan to commit "a mass crime".

Her colleague, Me Chantal Bonnard, also believes that “the history that Ayoub El Khazzani has built does not hold water”.

“Brave people, heroes.

"

"If there was a monster on this train, it is just as true that there were normal people who had become heroes", observes Me Casubolo.

“Faced with their destiny, these common people have revealed themselves to be exceptional men, brave men, heroes.

"Without the intervention of Damien A., Mark Moogalian, Anthony Sadler, Aleksander Skarlatos and Spencer Stone," a mass killing would have been committed ", adds the lawyer of the AFVT, who asks for a “severe” sentence for the assailant and his three co-defendants.

The advocates general will present their requisitions on Tuesday afternoon.

The lawyers for the four defendants will plead on Wednesday.

The verdict is expected at the end of the day on Thursday.

Justice

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Justice

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  • Society

  • Jihadism

  • Justice

  • Trial

  • Terrorism

  • Attack

  • Attack on a Thalys

  • Abdelhamid Abaaoud

  • Ayoub El Khazzani

  • Thalys