At the November 13 trial, the proceedings and the emotion
Sketch of the accused Salah Abdeslam, during the trial of the November 13 attacks in Paris, September 8, 2021. AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ
Text by: François-Damien Bourgery Follow
9 mins
The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 opened on Wednesday September 8, 2021 in Paris.
The first three days, devoted to procedural formalities, gave rise to some highlights.
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From our special envoy to the courthouse,
This Wednesday, September 8, the courthouse on the Île de la Cité is one of the most secure places in France. The streets are blocked by CRS coaches, it is impossible to walk along the building. Whoever has entered the wrong way must cross the bridge he has just taken to take another. He then has to go through two checkpoints manned by uniforms, each time showing proof of identity. We then enter the palace as we enter the boarding lounge of an airport, with bag control and security gates.
Everything is signposted, signposted and watched by the gendarmes.
To each his own badge color.
Their own have a yellow strap.
It is black for the lawyers, blue for the organizers, orange for the journalists, red for the civil parties not wishing to speak to them and green for those who accept it.
But this Wednesday, red and green thongs are rare.
These first three days of hearing are devoted to procedural formalities: the appeal of the parties, then the reading of the report of the president of the court.
It will be long, tedious, frustrating for many.
The lawyers advised their clients not to come.
A "maximum of truth"
At the entrance to the courtroom stretches a long procession of black dresses around which a few journalists prowl on the lookout for a green thong. Here is one. This is Dominique Kielemoës, who came with her husband. She is the mother of Victor Muñoz, a young man of 24 killed at La Belle Équipe, and vice-president of the association of victims 13onze15. She admits to keeping "
on the nerves
" to try to "
resist the media pressure
". From this trial, she expects a "
maximum of truth
".
The lady with the gray square escapes - her lawyer calls her - and rushes into the room made to measure for this trial.
It is huge, 550 seats, the largest ever built, but too small to accommodate the hundreds of people that this first day of hearing attracts.
►
To read also: Attacks of November 13, the multiple challenges of an extraordinary trial
One hundred and forty-one media have been accredited. Journalists who could not be seated in the main hall went to the auction room, just opposite, where the debates are broadcast on six large screens. The faces are leaning on the keyboards when suddenly, four fingers reach towards the only screen which shows the box of the defendants. They have just entered. “
Do you see Salah Abdeslam?
""
Is he there?
"
It's him, black T-shirt and black mask." It is 99% safe.
Since his arrest in March 2016 in Brussels, the only member of the November 13th commandos still alive has remained almost silent.
Its presence is in itself an event.
In the courtroom, press cartoonists crunch the box.
A lawyer fans herself with her notes.
A bell rings, the special assize court presided over by magistrate Jean-Louis Périès sits down.
It is 1:17 pm, the judicial marathon is launched.
Drawing of the courtroom for the November 13 attacks trial, September 8, 2021 in Paris.
AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ
The provocations of Abdeslam
The interpreters are called to the bar to state their identity. "
Do you swear to bring your aid to justice in your honor and your conscience?" - I swear.
Then comes the turn of the accused, in alphabetical order.
Salah Abdeslam
is the first to get up. “
First of all I want to testify that there is no god except Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger.
""
Alright. We will have the opportunity to come back to it
”, answers Jean-Louis Périès, imperturbable, who continues: names of the father and the mother? “
Their name has nothing to do here.
»Profession? “
I left my profession to become an Islamic State fighter.
""
I had noted 'interim'
», Retorts the president.
Laughter erupts, piercing the atmosphere of lead.
In the tiny perimeter reserved for shots and sound, the microphones jostle to collect the first reactions.
"
We expected it, we despise it,
" says Dominique Kielemoës about the Franco-Moroccan.
“
We saw it, finally.
We heard his voice,
”positive Catherine Orsenne, injured at the Stade de France.
Arthur Dénouveaux, the president of the Life for Paris association, prefers to retain the introductory speech by Jean-Louis Périès who recalled the importance of making this extraordinary trial a trial which, on the contrary, respects the norm, the procedure and the rights. of each one.
After a second suspension of the hearing caused by the discomfort of one of his co-defendants, Salah Abdeslam once again takes the floor to denounce his conditions of detention.
On Twitter, his name is rising in hot topics.
On television sets, specialists deliver their first analyzes.
“
As in martial arts, the only survivor of the commandos uses the force of procedure and the rule of law to turn it in his favor,
” observes criminologist Alain Bauer in the program
C dans l'air
.
"
After having partly missed his November 13, since his explosive belt did not work, he can take up this trial to redeem himself and show that he will fight to the end,
" says the journalist of
Le Monde
Elise Vincent.
"They didn't do anything"
The second day begins as the first ended: with the constitution of new civil parties.
Some cases are debated at length, such as that of Bataclan as a legal person.
Suddenly, Salah Abdeslam gets up and asks: "
Will the victims in Syria also be able to speak?"
"
And to embark on a tirade in
which it is in particular a question of the generosity of the inhabitants of Molenbeek, and in particular of his three friends accused of having helped him on his run, who appear free.
“
They didn't do anything
,” he swears.
And as he is no longer silent, the president cuts his microphone.
►
To read also: Infographic - Who are the authors and alleged accomplices of the attacks of November 13
The session is suspended, before the parade of those who want to become civil parties resumes at the bar.
They are more or less distant relatives, more or less close relatives, a woman who was in the Stade de France at the time of the explosions, a police officer who rushed to rue de Charonne when he heard gunshots and who says he has been on sick leave since 2016. Each time, we have to decide.
The debates will last until the evening.
Salah Abdeslam will not rise again.
Salah Abdeslam, September 8, 2021 during his trial in Paris.
AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ
"See the accused"
The next day, the civil parties are more numerous. A survivor of the Bataclan says he came to see the accused, and in the name of all those who could not move “
because they are no longer there, because they do not have the strength or because they are are afraid
”. He first took a full week's vacation. And then, on the first day of the trial, to mark the occasion, he went to a concert before going to have drinks with friends he had met "thanks" to the Bataclan. Today he will listen to the president read his report. For eight hours, assisted by two assessors,
Jean-Louis Périès will recall the facts
as they are described in the order of indictment, and develop the charges against each of the 20 accused. "
A hard, complicated moment
", Which Olivier Laplaud, also a survivor of the Bataclan and vice-president of the Life for Paris association, says he has been apprehending for some time.
But first, the magistrate calls the witnesses summoned to appear during these nine months of trial.
A succession of names that a lawyer sometimes breaks off: why allow judicial police officers to testify by videoconference and anonymously?
Is it really useful to hear this "Mr. Holland, François" when the testimonies are supposed to shed light on the personality and the role of each of the accused?
Another would like to be quoted from the former head of internal intelligence Bernard Squarcini and that of the Raid Jean-Michel Fauvergue, who spoke in an Arte documentary released recently.
Two and a half hours later, the appeal is over.
Jean-Louis Périès announces a suspension before a "
tedious
"
reading
.
The Litany of the Dead
The monotonous voice, barely tinged with a slight accent, the president begins with the general framework: “
On the evening of Friday, November 13, 2015, three teams, each made up of three men, attacked different places in the Paris region…
Before moving on to the detailed account of that night of horror: the first explosion at door D of the Stade de France, the one at door H, the one near McDonald's on rue de la Cokerie; the shootings on the terraces of Carillon and Petit Cambodge, À la Bonne Bière and La Casa Nostra, La Belle Équipe… And for each place, the names and ages of the people killed. In the courtroom, nothing can be heard but the voice of the president and the clicking of keyboards. A lady is rocking back and forth slightly. Another gently strokes the back of the collapsed man beside her. Psychologists from the Paris Help Victims Association walk the aisles, ready to help.
Jean-Louis Périès then comes to Bataclan.
He tells of the bursts of fire outside, then inside the concert hall where the rock group Eagles of Death Metal performs that evening, the two terrorists who go up to the balcony while the third is stationed. at the back of the enclosure to cut off any retreat, the intervention of the BAC police officers who kill Samy Amimour, putting an end to the massacre, the long hostage-taking and the BRI assault.
And again, the litany of the dead.
On November 13, 2015, 90 people were killed at the Bataclan.
This Friday, September 10, it will take the magistrate more than five minutes to quote them all.
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