Trial of the November 13 attacks: has justice been up to it?

Gwladys Laffitte, edited by Gauthier Delomez 06:08, June 29, 2022

Never had a trial lasted so long in France.

Justice will deliver on Wednesday evening the verdict of the gigantic trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, which began in September 2021. Before the revelation of the verdict, Europe 1 takes stock of the functioning of the trial.

And it is rather positive: it took place without major hitches, and almost on time because the Covid-19 affected half of the defendants' box, including Salah Abdeslam, and the hearing had to be five weeks late.

>> Find Europe Matin in replay and podcast here

In any case, the defendants and the civil parties welcomed the holding of the trial by President Jean-Louis Périès, who will then retire.

During these ten months, policing the hearing was not always easy to do.

We had to manage the characters, create a link with Salah Abdeslam, not show his emotions...

The difficulty of bringing in key witnesses

Some criticisms are still made to justice, in particular by defense lawyers, like Raphael Kempf at the microphone of Europe 1. that they come to this hearing, in particular Belgian witnesses", he explains.

"The main concern of (Jean-Louis) Périès, is not so much the absolute respect of the rights of the defense, rather the keeping of a schedule and the desire to avoid any diplomatic incident", estimates the lawyer.

>> READ ALSO

 - November 13 trial: on the eve of the verdict, behind the scenes of the deliberations

At the logistical level, the reception and support of the hundreds of civil parties was however unanimously welcomed.

Security was not lacking.

A life-size test for the other major trials, starting with that of the Nice attack which is due to begin next September.