Trial of the November 13 attacks: the defense will speak
Courtroom sketch showing Salah Abdeslam (right), Mohamed Abrini (center) at the start of the trial for the November 13 attacks.
AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
The defense arguments begin this Monday, June 13 at midday at the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015. The lawyers of the 14 defendants present will follow one another for two weeks to defend their clients and respond to the indictments of the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office.
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After the accusation, speak to the defence.
At
the trial of the attacks of November 13
, the lawyers of Salah Abdeslam and his thirteen co-defendants present before the special assize court of Paris begin to plead this Monday and for two weeks.
The hearing resumes at 12:30 p.m.
It ended Friday afternoon with the
sentences demanded against the twenty men tried for nine months
for their participation in the attacks which left 130 dead in Paris and Saint-Denis.
“A whole day for Mohamed Abrini”
For the lawyers of the fourteen defendants appearing before the court - six others, including five senior executives of the Islamic State jihadist group presumed dead in Syria, are tried in their absence - it is time to respond to the arguments of the prosecution.
And the last chance to convince the court.
How do we prepare for it in a historic trial that has already lasted nine months.
Me Marie Violleau defends
Mohamed Abrini
who during the hearing indicated that he should have blown himself up on November 13 and that he had given up at the last minute.
He faces life imprisonment.
“
We will have a whole day, a whole afternoon devoted to the pleadings of Mohamed Abrini
, informs his lawyer at the microphone of
Nathanaël Vittrant
of RFI.
If we need one hour we take one hour, if we need two hours we take two hours, if we need five hours, we will have our five hours.
I believe that we will have the full attention of the Court, that is why it may change other cases, other trials, it is that we still have, whatever one says little more time here than elsewhere
.
»
Our objective is to win the conviction of professional magistrates
Me Marie Violleau, lawyer for Mohamed Abrini
Olivia Ronen and Martin Vettes, lawyers for the only surviving member of the commandos, Salah Abdeslam, will plead last, on June 24.
Friday, after three days of a three-vote indictment, the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office (Pnat) requested against their client the heaviest sanction provided for by the criminal code: incompressible life imprisonment.
This extremely rare sentence - pronounced only four times - makes the possibility of a sentence adjustment very small.
"Unable to express any remorse
"
The 32-year-old Frenchman, who claimed to have "given up" to activate his explosive belt on the evening of November 13, is the only one in the box to be judged as co-author of the jihadist attacks which "appalled" and " flabbergasted” France.
“He has the blood of all the victims on his hands
,” said the Pnat.
Read also: Trial of the November 13 attacks: the floor is up to the prosecution
For the prosecution, which was not moved by
Salah Abdeslam's tears or apologies
during his last interrogation, the main accused adopted throughout the trial "
a strategy of constant minimization of the facts" and is shown "unable to express any remorse
".
Against the "accomplices" of the attacks, all members of the same jihadist cell whose commandos were "interchangeable", the Pnat also demanded perpetuity, asking that the security period be modeled according to their degree of involvement.
The defendants will speak last on Monday, June 27, before the court retires to deliberate.
The verdict is expected on June 29.
(
and
with
AFP
)
►
To read also: Infographic - Trial of November 13: who are the perpetrators and alleged accomplices of the attacks?
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Trial of the attacks of November 13
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