Trial of the November 13 attacks: heavy sentences required against the accused
Courtroom sketch made this Friday, June 10, 2022, and showing the accused Salah Abdeslam making gestures before the Paris Special Assistance Court during the trial of the November 2015 attacks, which left 130 dead in Saint-Denis and Paris .
AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ
Text by: RFI Follow
4 mins
A step was taken in the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, with the end of the indictments and the announcement of the sentences required by the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office.
Heavy sentences, at the height of the 232 dead and hundreds of wounded of this night of "nightmare".
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Transcript ,
Nathanaël Vittrant and Marine de La Moissonnière
We suspected, after three days of indictment, that the attorneys general had not been convinced by the late apologies presented to the victims by Salah Abdeslam.
Camille Hennetier, General Counsel.
He remains convinced of not having killed anyone, he repeated it at the hearings.
This is to say the path that remains for him to travel before finding, perhaps one day, the path of repentance.
“Each of the sentences is justified”
Against the main defendant in this vast trial, the Advocates General therefore ask for incompressible life imprisonment, that is to say without possible adjustment of sentence.
It's rare.
It is simply the heaviest penalty in the French Penal Code.
Perpetuity also requested for Mohamed Abrini, the man who, twice, gave up at the last minute to blow himself up.
Or even for Mohamed Bakkali, the great steward of terror, a centerpiece of the terrorist cell, insisted the general attorneys.
His “
kingpin
”.
Life still required for Sofien Ayari and Osama Krayem, two seasoned jihadists from the Islamic State group who, the prosecution is convinced, should have committed an attack on November 13, 2015 in Amsterdam, and who were in any case on a mission in Europe at that time.
The security periods are an adjustment variable: thirty years before any adjustment of sentence for MM.
Ayari and Krayem, 22 years old for MM.
Abrini and Bakkali.
The Advocates General took care to individualize the sentences during a rigorous indictment, thus considers Me Didier Seban, lawyer for civil parties.
Each of the penalties is justified by the behavior and attitude of each.
We don't always ask for the maximum sentence.
It is a severe indictment, but obviously up to the crimes committed by those tried.
“All have agreed to support a terrorist action, whether out of conviction, cowardice or greed.
They lodged the beast, they fed the beast, they armed the beast.
The prosecution
paints a relentless narrative that does not spare any defendant.
with @MarineAmericas https://t.co/GGcAJrErDV
– Nathanaël Vittrant (@Nathanael_V) June 10, 2022
“The other pillar of the cell”
Of the 14 defendants present, this therefore makes five applications for life imprisonment.
For the nine others, the three general attorneys demanded sentences ranging from five to twenty years in prison.
Against the two men who made the trip from Syria, with the two Iraqis from the Stade de France, but who had been stopped in their journey, the public prosecutor is asking for twenty years in prison.
"
With Molenbeek, the circle of friends and family is the other pillar of the terrorist cell
", said the Advocate General, to justify the sentences of nine and sixteen years in prison, requested against Yassine Atar, Abdellah Chouaa and Ali El Haddad Asufi.
The first must be shared, he who claims his innocence, but he risks life.
For him, the prosecution is asking for nine years in prison.
As for the third, the Advocates General proposed sixteen years of imprisonment.
The prosecution remains convinced that he sought to obtain weapons, but they had to content themselves with "clusters of clues" in the absence of formal evidence.
The lightest sentences requested concern Farid Kharkhach, accused of having provided false papers to the terrorist cell (six years in prison), and the three men who helped Salah Abdeslam on his run.
Against the latter, including Ali Oulkadi, the prosecution is asking for five to eight years in prison.
Note that the three defendants who appear free could return to prison if the court follows the decisions of the prosecution.
Their lawyers will have the floor from Monday, to convince her otherwise.
November 13 trial: "It's not so nice to be a victim" https://t.co/WFBhtJQcHB pic.twitter.com/aYeMT7Thju
– RFI (@RFI) June 7, 2022
“Prison serves to punish”
“
Your decision must reflect the sum of the physical and psychological suffering of the worst attacks committed on French soil
,” explained Camille Hennetier.
"
What meaning to give to incarceration
", she wondered, for the accused who for some continued to justify the attacks?
"
Failing to prepare for reintegration, prison serves to punish and protect society
," she said.
All these penalties will never be equal to the suffering of the victims, believe some civil parties.
Olivier Laplaud, Bataclan survivor and vice-president of the Life for Paris association.
Will we really be satisfied with anything anyway, be it the sentences required or the sentences handed down?
We remain victims of attacks, we remain faced with horrible acts.
The people who lost loved ones, the people who lived through the horror that night, the people who were injured, are not going to be satisfied with any pain.
Maybe just to see justice done, and to be satisfied to be able to put part of this life after us behind us, finally.
From Monday, the floor will be on the defense.
The defendants will be able to speak for the last time on June 27.
Verdict expected June 29.
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Justice
Trial of the attacks of November 13
Terrorism