November 13: François Hollande hails an “exceptional” and “exemplary” trial

Europe 1 with AFP 10:35 p.m., June 29, 2022

The former President of the Republic François Hollande hailed Wednesday evening the end of the "exceptional" and "exemplary" trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, welcoming that the accused had been "tried in accordance with the law".

The trial was "exemplary"

The trial "was expected, hoped for, but also feared. It had to take place. It was exceptional. It was exemplary", reacted Mr. Hollande in a press release.

"By giving the victims a voice for months in order to have all the testimonies and take stock of the suffering and pain, and by requesting the presence of all the actors in this tragedy, Justice has made it possible to seek the truth in order to better understand the path of Islamist terrorism," he added.

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— François Hollande (@fhollande) June 29, 2022

“France has asserted our democracy”

"The culprits were tried in accordance with the law. France argued that our democracy can be firm without calling into question its rules and principles," said the former head of state (2012-2017), who had testified at the bar of the special assize court of Paris last November.

"Beyond the sentences pronounced, I think today of all the victims. Their wounds remain and their grief will never go away," continued Mr. Hollande.

The trial, the proceedings of which were recorded and filmed, will give future generations the means to understand what happened on November 13, 2015, so that nothing is forgotten about the fanaticism of the terrorists and the irreparable nature of the crushed lives". He concluded. After nearly ten months of hearings, the court sentenced the twenty defendants to two-year life sentences, including an extremely rare incompressible life sentence against the principal of between them, Salah Abdeslam, a 32-year-old Frenchman.