November 13 trial: a few messages and a bottle in the sea

Archive photo: November 13, 2016, women kiss in front of the Bataclan in Paris, one year after the events.

AP - Thibault Camus

Text by: Nathanaël Vittrant Follow

2 mins

The pleadings of the lawyers of the civil parties continue, at the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, in Paris.

The opportunity to send messages to their clients, to the court, as well as to the accused.

Or to send bottles to the sea. Transcript of the hearing for Friday, June 3, 2022.

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From our special correspondent at the Paris courthouse,

First there was Neima's lawyer, this young girl who had come to tell the bar the horror of the Bataclan, when she was only 16 years old.

She had said that like a tightrope walker, she held on to a thread, supported by two giants, her strength and her joy.

After filing, she thought she was better, says her lawyer, but she relapsed.

So she turns to her.

Remember, you told us on the stand, sometimes the thread loose.

It's normal.

But you have the tools, the resources and the strength that will allow you to move forward.

Yes, there are moments of turbulence, but the foundations are there and I have no doubts about your ability to bounce back.

Me Mariana de Sevin also addresses her clients: Flora and Léonor Sauvage, twin sisters who emerged unscathed from the massacres of Parisian terraces.

They are part of the cohort of the silent, the invisible.

Beware of their silence, which is only the expression of their dignity in the face of those who have suffered more than them.

Too ashamed to sit next to those who have lost a loved one, or are disabled for life.

By the end of my argument, you will probably forget their names.

But it doesn't matter, the important thing is that they know that they have their place in this trial.

Me Gascone addresses himself to the accused.

He has a message for them.

Gentlemen, you all, to varying degrees, of course, participated in the massacre.

You are all, to varying degrees, of course, criminally responsible for this massacre.

It was important to my clients that you heard these words.

And then there was Julien's lawyer, a young and brilliant reporter whose flight was shattered at the Bataclan.

Me Jean Tamalet reads the message he addresses to the injured young girl whom he carried for 60 meters while fleeing.

I told the driver to take you to the nearest hospital and get your ass kicked.

You're young, brunette, you were wearing jeans and a blouse.

You said you took a bullet in the butt, but I noticed that your thigh was also bleeding.

And I don't know anything else about you.

I hope you made it out.

That's all I want to know.

►Consult all our articles devoted to the trial of the attacks of November 13

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