Trial of the November 13 attacks: the convictions of Judge Panou
Courtroom sketch produced on September 14, 2021 showing the Belgian judge Isabelle Panou, in charge of the Brussels part of the investigation into the Paris attacks, during the trial of the Paris attacks of November 2015 in Paris.
AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ
Text by: Nathanaël Vittrant Follow
3 mins
The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 continues before the special assize court of Paris.
This Thursday, April 7, the court heard Isabelle Panou, the judge who instructed the voluminous Belgian part of the file.
All the defendants passed often and sometimes for a long time in his office.
A tense reunion.
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With our envoy to the Paris courthouse,
“
Mohamed Abrini was someone whose will to commit attacks had been acquired for some time.
“
The Radicalism of Salah Abdeslam: Ancient, Established, Confirmed
.
Judge Panou was called before the Court at the request of the defence, but her outspokenness and outspokenness especially delighted the prosecution.
She had
already come
to give her opinion on the case on September 14 when the trial had just started.
The president informs him of the latest revelations: Mohamed Abrini acknowledging that he should have been part of the November 13 commandos, but
speaking of a long-standing defection
.
“
We brought in people who crossed the whole earth, the day before the attacks he was with the Iraqis armed to the teeth, there are explosives, and we are going to let him return to Brussels quietly?
In a project like the Paris attacks, defection is not allowed
, ”she decides.
“He is with an explosive belt in the heart of Paris: the act of participation, he is there”
On Salah Abdeslam who
claims to have given up on blowing himself up
: “
He activated, he did not activate … He is with an explosive belt in the heart of Paris: the act of participation, it is there.
On Yassine Atar, about whom a Belgian police officer, the day before, acknowledged that nothing in the file
made it possible to materialize any aid given to the terrorist cell
: "
We are not used to keeping people in preventive detention for which there are no clues.
I'm not going to take them all back, otherwise I'm going to ask for a glass of water because we'll have it for a while.
On the bench of the accusation, we exult.
So when after more than three hours of hearing the word reached the defense, the atmosphere was tense.
“You would have come with a little more humility”
Martin Vettes, Salah Abdeslam's lawyer, speaks of a "
back to the future
".
“
One has the impression to hear you that nothing has happened in the last seven months.
I regret that you did not attend the hearings, because you would have seen the flaws in the Belgian investigation.
The gaping flaws.
You would have come with a little more humility
.
The good humor of Judge Panou has faded, the questions are more pointed, the magistrate less affirmative.
"
I delivered my testimony, it likes or it doesn't
," she finally let go, annoyed.
“
You give your assessments on the indices
”, answers Christian Saint-Palais, lawyer for Yassine Atar.
“
We are here in the period of evidence
.
»
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Justice
Trial of the attacks of November 13