• The trial of the July 14, 2016 attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, which is due to last until December 16, opened on Monday afternoon before the special assize court in Paris.

  • Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the driver of the truck which drove into the crowd, killing 85 people and injuring 318, was shot dead by the police a few minutes after the tragedy.

    Eight other people - seven men and a woman, accused of having helped him in his project - are judged, but only three of them appear for acts of terrorism.

  • In the absence of the main defendant, the 900 people who have joined as civil parties hope that this trial will reveal the degree of involvement of each of the defendants.

At the specially composed Court of Assizes of Paris,

Two months after the end of the trial of the attacks of November 13, there is an air of deja vu, this Monday, in the corridors of the historic courthouse in Paris.

But this time, it is not the survivors of the Bataclan, the Stade de France and the Parisian terraces who survey the court, but those of the Promenade des Anglais.

If the victims of the attack of July 14 in Nice are few to have made the trip to Paris, for those crossed in front of the room of the lost steps, this first day of hearing revives painful memories.

“It's difficult, we relive everything.

I feel like I've been sent back six years when I was looking for my daughter,” says Anne Murris, who lost her 27-year-old daughter, Camille, in the attack.

“There is a mixture of feeling, helplessness, sadness, suffering and even fear.

Overall, it's a form of ill-being, ”adds this mother, who has since become president of the “Memorial of the Angels” association.

Therapy and reconstruction

The sixteen weeks of trial will never erase the pain of Véronique, who lost her sister and her husband on July 14, 2016: “We will never be relieved, we will never be able to calm the anger and the pain that are in us.

They took our lives, our spouses, our children, we will not be able to recover, ”she says.

But for others, like Stephane, whose wife, Rachel, died after being hit by the truck, this trial is something of a relief.

“Six years later, we are finally there.

We can put a face to the name of the accused”, adds the one who became co-president of the association “Promenade des Anges”.

Nadège, who was injured with her companion in the stampede, expects this trial "a form of therapy".

“We were robbed of our lives.

It tipped over when we set foot on the median strip of the Promenade des Anglais.

I want to tell what I lived, I come to say "I am a victim of the Nice attack" ”, she continues.

Rebuilding is also what Mathieu, whose parents both died that day, hopes for.

Twenty years old at the time, the young man saved his sister by pushing her to the side, before seeing the truck rush on his father, who was in a wheelchair, and his mother.

"Know the truth"

From this trial, the victims expect above all “that justice be done”, explains Me Antoine Casubolo Ferro, lawyer for several victims and for the French Association of Victims of Terrorism (AFVT).

Because in the absence of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the driver of the truck, the civil parties are counting on the seven defendants present in the box - the eighth being tried in his absence - to understand what happened.

If three of them are tried for acts of terrorism - the others for acts of common law -, none appears for complicity.

"The main perpetrator is deceased, but we know that around him, there were other people who helped him, who made this attack possible by their action or their inaction", judge Claude Lienhard, lawyer for several victims.

“There are a lot of gray areas on the role of each, we need to understand the relationships between them.

Their justifications are to say "I didn't know anything, I just provided weapons, I just rented a truck".

But I want to know their degree of involvement, their level of radicalization, that of the terrorist.

I want to know the truth, to understand why Rachel is no longer there,” hopes Stéphane.

“In the box, there are no accomplices, no co-authors.

We will have to explain this to the victims so that they understand the convictions, ”said Me Antoine Casubolo Ferro.

Victims expect 'severe' sentences

If Nadège does not claim "revenge", she expects "severe" sentences, commensurate with our suffering.

“My companion tried to commit suicide for four months, I for two.

They have to be significant, ”she says, tears in her eyes.

Danielle, she, wishes that "the defendants take the maximum and especially that they are not released behind".

"I don't want to find them in two or three years free on the streets," she adds.

If everyone hopes for penalties commensurate with the drama, it is also because it is historic.

“Since the Second World War, never has a man done so much damage alone in France.

It is normal for the trial to be historic, because the act is sadly historic”, according to Me Antoine Casubolo Ferro.

On Monday, several defendants expressed their wish to answer questions from the court.

Tuesday, for the second day of the hearing, President Laurent Raviot will give them the floor for a first statement.

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