• Two new defendants tested positive for Covid-19 at the November 13 trial, resulting in a fourth postponement.

  • The verdict is now expected around June 24.

“It's bad luck, especially since the circulation of the virus is considerably reduced…”, sighs the president of the specially composed assize court, Jean-Louis Péries.

Tuesday, during a flash hearing, the magistrate announced a new postponement – ​​the fourth – of the trial of the November 13 attacks, two defendants – Mohamed Bakkali and Sofien Ayari – having tested positive for Covid-19.

After Salah Abdeslam at the end of December, Ali El Haddad Asufi in January and Mohamed Amri and Adel Haddadi last week, six of the fourteen defendants present therefore contracted the virus in a few weeks.

“Now, there are only 45 prison officers infected out of 8,000.

At the level of prisoners, they are less than 50 out of the 13,000 “detainees in the Ile-de-France region, sighs the president.

The magistrate, who had just completed the reorganization of the schedule of the debates after these multiple postponements, must "start from scratch".

The only certainty is that hearings will now be held every Monday – this day was until now “holiday” to allow lawyers in particular to maintain their activity in parallel with the trial – from March.

The verdict, initially scheduled for May 25, could be delivered around June 24.

That is already four weeks behind the initial schedule.

“It reinforces the feeling that the trial escapes them”

“We try to take these delays philosophically, they are more or less the mirror of what is happening in the general population, but it is true that it is starting to do a lot, that it is difficult to see the end of it” , says Arthur Dénouveaux, survivor of the Bataclan and president of the association of victims Life for Paris.

The multiple postponements firstly lead to organizational difficulties for the civil parties who wish to follow the proceedings.

While some favor web radio, others go back and forth, sometimes coming from afar to attend the hearings.

However, the schedule keeps changing.

Above all, many have the feeling of a tunnel from which they struggle to see the end.

If the trial actually ends on June 24 – it started on September 8 – the appeal period runs until July 8.

As for the civil hearing, it has not yet been fixed.

"Ten months, almost a year with this trial in our lives, it's long and trying," insists the president of Life for Paris.

Even the date of June 24 poses a problem: it falls in the middle of Hellfest, a music festival in which many civil parties participate.

A detail ?

Not that much.

“It reinforces a feeling of frustration, the impression that the trial escapes them,” insists Arthur Dénouveaux.

“A form of relaxation”

For the defendants too, we are assured on the defense side, these multiple postponements are difficult to live with.

“They undoubtedly lead to a form of relaxation, analyzes Me Negar Haeri, who defends Mohamed Amri.

We are necessarily more efficient when we stay focused.

“And to specify:” It is valid for them as for us.

In a trial at the assizes, we are under glass, concentrated, centered on the hearing, and then the pressure drops.

There, while this trial is already a river, we proceed in fits and starts, we have to remobilize each time.

»

If the hearing was, this time, stopped at the end of a sequence - that of the journey of the terrorists before the attacks - everyone hopes that the next few weeks during which the preparations and the very commission of the facts will be discussed, can take place in one go.

Resumed on March 1, therefore, “provided that all the accused are able to appear”, specifies the president.

Justice

Trial of the November 13 attacks: "I did not kill anyone and I did not hurt anyone", claims Salah Abdeslam

Justice

November 13 trial: postponement for a week after the Covid-19 contamination of one of the accused

  • Coronavirus

  • Covid-19

  • Trial

  • Attacks of November 13

  • Justice

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