Reportage
July 14 attack in Nice: "We waited for this trial"
At the Acropolis convention center in Nice, two rooms with 500 and 200 seats are reserved for the retransmission of the trial of the July 14 attack.
AFP - VALERY HACHE
Text by: François-Damien Bourgery Follow
7 mins
The trial of the attack of July 14, 2016 opened this Monday, September 5 in Paris.
In Nice, it is broadcast live from the Acropolis convention center.
But few of the victims came to attend this first day of hearing.
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From our special correspondent in Nice,
It's a concrete liner anchored in the middle of three avenues.
An ordinary convention center, with its conferences, its student lounges, its one-man-shows... Apart from a few policemen in white polo shirts and television cameras planted along a boulevard, nothing, on the other hand, suggests that the Acropolis also hosts the live broadcast of the
trial of the July 14, 2016 attack
, the second deadliest to have hit France.
This national holiday evening, two kilometers away, a white truck driven by a 31-year-old Tunisian drove into a crowd of 30,000 people gathered on the famous Promenade des Anglais for the traditional fireworks display.
In two minutes, the vehicle killed 86 people, including 15 minors, and injured more than 450, before coming to a stop and the driver, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, was shot dead by the police.
But in the name of the principle of centralization of terrorist affairs, it is in Paris that the trial is being held.
The victims of Nice who cannot move therefore have no choice but to follow him from the Palais des Congrès.
“
Black out
”
In the enclosures reserved for the press, their juxtaposed stories create an evening of horror.
There is Jean-Pierre Leroy, a former army officer "
with his values
".
On the evening of July 14, he was on the sixth floor of a building bordering the Promenade des Anglais when he heard firecrackers, before realizing that it was the police who were trying to neutralize the assailant.
He hopes that this trial will allow him to know the role played by each of the accused, of which he brandishes the trombinoscope produced by
Nice Matin
.
Sama Echickr was on the "Prom'" at Boulevard Gambetta with her brother and her children who had come from Belgium when the truck appeared.
Her brother ran away, she didn't.
She was paralyzed.
She says she saw the killer's face.
"
He was cold
."
Six years later, when she returns to the Promenade des Anglais, she sees blood.
"
I wonder why I'm here when others are dead
," she says.
Bruno Razafitrimo, tourist driver, lost his wife that night.
She had gone to watch the fireworks with their children and friends, one of whose sons also died.
Bruno, he was in Aix-en-Provence with clients when he learned from a cousin of his wife that an “
accident
” had occurred.
“
Even if something bad happens to us, we are at work.
I couldn't abandon my clients like that
,” he explains in a soft voice.
Béatrice Martin, she was on the beach with her husband and her daughters who were playing ricochets, when the music of a concert gave way to a "
hubbub
" and shooting.
"
My daughters say they saw things, I had a total blackout.
I just remember the wind blowing dead leaves, and red stains, like restaurant tablecloths used to cover bodies.
»
And then there's Lobna Ben Aouissi, whose parents, sisters and children were saying hello on FaceTime from the Promenade des Anglais when in 30 seconds the party turned into chaos.
“
I heard screams, shots.
And then I saw the palm trees of the Prom' parade jerkily because my mother had started running
, ”says the young woman.
Coming back from the beach where he had taken refuge, his father looked for one of his daughters among the bodies, mistakenly convinced that she had been knocked down by the truck.
"
I don't think he'll ever recover.
", she says.
For a long time, she thought she was not legitimate to bring a civil action.
She finally changed her mind after an accident that made her realize that this attack had marked her deeply.
“
When you're from Nice, the Prom' is your whole life.
This is where we go for walks, play, eat ice cream.
It took me over a year to go back.
Even in the car, I didn't want to go there anymore.
Lobna sees this trial as a starting point in the rebuilding process.
“
We waited for this trial.
Six years is a long time.
»
A tedious first day
Two rooms with 500 and 200 seats were opened for this broadcast on giant screens.
The smallest for the public and the press, the largest for civil parties.
But half an hour from the start of the hearing, it is in dribs and drabs that they cross the security gates manned by agents in dark suits.
“
There are more journalists than civil parties!
“, is moved a lawyer with the president of the bar Adrien Verrier.
Did they all go to the Paris courthouse?
The still largely empty “great trial” room that the screens show makes it doubtful.
It must be said that this first day, devoted to the appeal of the parties, promises to be tedious.
When at 1:53 p.m. the bell rang marking the start of the trial, there were only a handful of them watching the court set up 900 kilometers away.
Close-up on President Laurent Raviot, dry tone and glasses wandering between the palm of his hand and the tip of his nose: “
The audience is open, please sit down
”.
From the back of the room, security guards track pirate recordings, an offense punishable by one year's imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros.
Any offender is immediately ejected for a reminder of the law.
Psychologists in blue vests from the Montjoye association watch for any tears, trembling or staring… All these signals indicating that a person needs help.
►
To read also: At the trial of November 13, psychologists in support
After the call of the interpreters comes that of the accused.
They are three in the box and four to appear free.
An eighth is currently detained in Tunisia after having escaped judicial control.
He will therefore be judged by default.
Seven men, one woman, who face five years in prison to life.
“
This trial is broadcast in other rooms and on a web radio,
recalls the president.
For this system to work, everyone has to speak well into the microphone.
One after the other, they all state their identities: Ramzi Arefa, born November 28, 1994 in Nice;
Maksim Celaj on January 24, 1992 in Fier, Albania;
Chokri Chafroud;
Endri Elezi;
Mohamed Ghraieb;
Artan Henaj;
Enkeledja Zace.
The court will not hear them again until early November during interrogations on their personalities and the merits of the case.
Case by case
Before that, five weeks will be devoted to the testimony of the civil parties.
More than 850 victims had already become civil parties before the opening of the trial, but others can still do so.
So the public prosecutor undertook to recall the rules: the people who were in the path of the shots and the truck from its entry on the Promenade until its stop, as well as those who had intervened to stop these actions.
“
A contrario
” cannot constitute civil parties those having arrived on the scene after the neutralization of the assailant, nor those who were not on the Promenade des Anglais.
The court will consider “
on a case-by-case basis
» the situation of people who were in the immediate environment of the attack…
While in Paris the lawyers for the civil parties come to the bar to give the names of their clients, the broadcasting rooms of the Acropolis are slowly emptying.
Lobna Ben Aouissi admits to having been "
shocked
" when she saw Enkeledja Zace introduce herself.
“
It's someone from our neighborhood.
“In his always soft voice, Bruno Razafitrimo says he felt”
like a day back to college
“.
He discovered the court and the role played by each.
Now he will be able to consider bringing his children.
"
They are the ones who experienced this attack,
" he recalls.
Me, I am only the relay.
»
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