On the second day of the trial for the July 14 attack in Nice, Tuesday September 6, the special assize court in Paris debated the advisability of projecting video surveillance images of the murderous race of the ram truck.

This viewing promises to be “unsustainable” but is “very important” for many victims, argued the majority of civil party lawyers, while those for the defense consider that it “is not necessary”.

These four minutes of horror filmed by the Nice surveillance cameras have been kept in a single copy, under seal, so that "no image circulates outside of the legal procedure", and "I wish that this remains the case “, to “avoid voyeurism or sensationalism”, underlined the president of the court, Laurent Raviot.

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According to him, the decision to show them or not in the courtroom in Paris as well as in the retransmission rooms in Nice, must be based on three criteria.

"Is it of interest in terms of understanding the course of the attack, is it of interest in determining the possible responsibility of the accused, and is it of interest for the civil parties? “, he listed, specifying that he had not seen these images himself.

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The president did not say when he would make his decision on the matter.

The viewing of the seal is envisaged on Friday, during the hearing of the agent of the anti-terrorist sub-directorate (Sdat) of the judicial police who used these images for the purposes of the investigation.

A divisive topic

The civil parties are divided on the subject.

"This is something that has been asked of us on many occasions, for reasons of reconstruction, reconstruction of memories", but also to "be able to confront the court, the prosecution, the defendants with the facts that we are going to judge", underlined Virginie Le Roy, lawyer for the association Promenade des anges and many victims.

"My clients are either hostile (to the dissemination of images) or have no opinion," said Gérard Chemla, another civil party lawyer.

"This question puts the finger on the dichotomy between what is necessary for the civil parties and the debate of the manifestation of the truth and the appreciation of the responsibility of the accused", argued Adelaïde Jacquin on behalf of the lawyers of the defense.

None of the defendants being dismissed for "complicity" in the attack, "we consider that viewing these videos is not necessary for the assessment of (their) responsibility", added the lawyer.

The testimonies of relatives of privileged deceased persons

Tuesday morning, the hearing began with the call of witnesses and experts called to testify during the trial, including former President François Hollande and his Minister of the Interior at the time, Bernard Cazeneuve.

Five weeks will also be devoted to the testimony of civil parties: 1,940 people had joined as civil parties on Tuesday in the middle of the afternoon (compared to 865 before the start of the trial), among whom around 300 wish to testify.

In view of the constrained schedule of the trial, which is due to end on December 16, "the court intends to give priority to relatives of deceased persons and physically injured persons", warned Laurent Raviot.

Addressing the defendants, the president acknowledged that the first part of the trial "leaves them a little aside", but assured that "the court will take the time necessary to examine their personality, the charges against them and their defense elements".

Defense of the accused

They were however invited to express themselves for the first time on the facts.

The seven defendants present all wanted to distance themselves from the attack led by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel who, driving a ram truck, killed 86 people on the Promenade des Anglais on July 14, 2016 - the eighth defendant, Brahim Tritrou, detained in Tunisia, is "tried by default".

Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian killed by the police on the evening of the attack, is the main absentee from the trial.

"I have nothing to do with what happened," said Mohamed Ghraieb, who appears free under judicial supervision.

He is one of the three defendants tried for association of terrorist criminals (AMT) and incurs 20 years of criminal imprisonment.

The prosecution accuses him in particular of a “great proximity” with Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel and the fact of having traveled with him on July 11 in the truck which was going to be used for the attack.

"For me, as a Nice citizen, it's really not easy that people can think that I am involved in such serious facts", argues for his part Ramzi Arefa, in pre-trial detention since 2016. He is the only accused who faces life imprisonment.

Also prosecuted for terrorist criminal association, he admits having "been the intermediary for the sale of a pistol".

But "I never wanted to partner with him on any project," he protests.

The accused will no longer be invited to speak until early November.

With AFP

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