At the November 13 trial, the courtroom plunges into the horror of the Bataclan
A wounded person is evacuated from the Bataclan concert hall, targeted by an attack on November 13, 2015. AP - Thibault Camus
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
At the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, this Friday, an investigator revived in the courtroom his progress "in the horror" of the concert hall of the Bataclan that evening.
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Just a week ago, when reading his report, the president of the special assize court had given in total silence the names and ages of the 90 people killed on the evening of November 13, 2015 at the Bataclan.
It had taken him over five minutes to quote them all.
This Friday, the horror took on another dimension with the story of an investigator from the criminal brigade.
►
To read also: At the trial of November 13, the procedure and the emotion
It is November 14, 2015. It is 5 am. The BIS assault on the concert hall is over. The three terrorists are dead, the hostages freed, the last wounded evacuated. Patrick Bourbotte, appointed coordinator of findings for the Paris criminal brigade, enters the room. "
Good luck, you will be in horror for hours,
" slips a police officer from the search and intervention squad. “
The atmosphere is striking, gloomy, cold. The light is white, which makes the place look pale. The ceilings are very high, it gives the appearance of a cathedral,
”says the investigator in front of a full courtroom. He describes tangled bodies, clotted blood, body parts and ringing phones ...
In the footsteps of the investigator
The plan of the Bataclan is displayed on the giant screen behind the courtyard.
For several hours, Patrick Bourbotte leads the courtroom in his footsteps.
As he progressed, he identified the metal nuts, the "
bloody
"
bullets
, the three Kalashnikovs found, the key to the jihadists' car, the "
intact
"
head
of Samy Amimour who blew himself up on the scene after having was hit by shots fired by a BAC commissioner and his driver, the "
smashed ceiling
" by the survival instinct of those who fled through the attic.
“
We searched everything.
My fear was to miss a wounded person or a body, hidden in a mouse hole
, ”confides the investigator.
Zone by zone, it counts the victims, one by one. And each time, this Friday, Patrick Bourbotte reads the names of the victims. In the courtroom, we hear some tears, reports our special correspondent at the courthouse,
Marine de la Moissonnière
. Forty-four people were killed in the pit at the start of the attack. There were 71 in the whole room.
After hours of describing the horror, the investigator wants to make it listen. In the concert hall was found a dictaphone which recorded the entire attack. It will broadcast only a very short extract, "
nothing which will not allow the identification of victims
". It lasts 22 seconds. An eternity. Some civil parties get up and go out. At the microphone, a lawyer gives back the psychological assistance number for those who listen via Internet radio.
The group Eagles of Death Metal resonates, interrupted by bursts of gunfire.
The audio cuts out, silence.
From the rest of the 2h38 recording, Patrick Bourbotte will read only a few extracts, lending his voice to those of the terrorists.
On the "soundtrack", the investigators counted the shots of this "sequence" of 32 minutes: 258, in bursts and piecemeal.
►
To read also: Trial of November 13: the chilling account of the first findings at the Stade de France
⚫ November 13: some benchmarks to understand the trial
►
General presentation of the trial and victims' expectations
►
Infographic: who are the alleged perpetrators and accomplices of the attacks
►
Podcasts: Shock waves, how to rebuild?
► Interview: François Hollande talks about “his” November 13
►
Report: the double punishment of French Muslims
►
Testimony: "A part of me died at the Bataclan"
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Trial of the November 13 attacks
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