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, September 5 before the special assize court in Paris.
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the driver of the truck which drove into the crowd, killing 86 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.
At the helm this Thursday, Sébastien, 50, told how he had rescued Emma, a 13-year-old girl seriously injured during the attack.
He also confided the difficulty for the victims of the attack to return to a normal life.
A policeman passing by There are wounds that no doctor, no psychologist can treat.
On July 14, 2016, Sébastien was lucky not to be hit by the truck driven by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.
But for six years, the fifties, originally from Seine-Saint-Denis, has been haunted by the images of the bodies torn to pieces on the ground, the cries of the survivors.
“This drama, it is impregnated in your personality, in your flesh”, he explains this Thursday at the bar the specially composed assize court.
“We are not victims just for one evening”, underlines this manager of a VTC company, short hair, fine beard, glasses and black shirt.
The pain is so strong that he often “wanted to die”.
Living “fully [his] depression”, he clings on thinking of Emma, a young girl whose hand Sébastien held for almost an hour while waiting for help.
His meeting with the teenager, who was then 13 years old, Sébastien owes in a certain way to “fate”.
At the time, Sébastien was in a relationship with a woman who lived in Nice.
That summer, he planned to fly to join her on the Côte d'Azur but at the last moment his flight was cancelled.
Sébastien decides to take his car, drives all night and arrives in the early morning in the city which is about to celebrate, a few hours later, July 14th.
That evening, his "girlfriend" is working.
Rather than stay alone at home, he goes down the street to watch the fireworks on the Promenade des Anglais, where the crowd has gathered.
“Suddenly, without any noise, there is this white mass which passed next to me”, he says.
“I turned my head and saw this little girl on the ground”
At the wheel of his 19 tons, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel hits people like a ball in a bowling game.
“Everyone started screaming, running.
I stood there, watched the truck continue on its way.
I turned my head and saw this little girl on the ground.
I took her hand and didn't let go.
He doesn't know it yet, but her name is Emma, she's 13 years old.
In the attack, the young girl lost her grandmother, her aunt and her husband.
She herself was seriously injured and suffered from burns all over her body.
"She was in a fairly serious condition, I understood that I could lose her if I let her go", continues Sébastien.
While talking to him, he watches the white truck continue on its macabre path.
The vehicle eventually came to a stop, and a gunfight broke out
A policeman, who passes by, "yells" at him to take shelter.
But it is "out of the question", for Sébastien, to let go of the hand of Emma, a young survivor in the middle of the chaos.
“Every time I looked up, I saw dead people.
No human being is ready to see that.
I saw a man dying, dying, it's the worst image because I would have liked to give him my hand so that he could leave with dignity.
I learned later that it was Emma's uncle.
Several times, the teenager “wanted to close her eyes, to let go”.
So Sébastien makes sure to “keep her conscious”, so as not to “lose her”.
It takes about fifty minutes for the rescuers, overwhelmed by the large number of victims, to take care of Emma.
“I was lucky to come across Emma”
The firefighters no longer have a stretcher.
It is therefore on a "work barrier" that the young girl is transported to the Méridien hotel, which is used to shelter the survivors.
Inside the establishment, Sébastien stays for a good fifteen minutes next to Emma, who keeps asking him where his family is.
He then sets out to find them.
In vain.
In reality, only one of the teenager's older sisters survived.
“I wanted to believe, for her, that they were still alive.
He goes back to see Emma, but a policeman prevents him from entering the hotel.
It must be said that, at the time, rumors circulated, reporting other attacks and hostage-taking in the city.
“It was a real heartbreak for me, I felt like I had abandoned her.
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It is only two days later that he finds the young girl.
"I was lucky to come across Emma who fought to live, because if she had died that evening, I would not be in front of you", loose the one who has been fighting a daily fight, for six years, against dark thoughts.
“Have you managed to rebuild a personal life?
asked the president of the court, Laurent Raviot.
"It's complicated," replies Sébastien.
I lost a lot of things, people don't understand me anymore, my girlfriend lasted four years.
Gradually, he lost his friends.
“It's the sequence, he breathes.
Everything is falling apart and you don't understand why.
Today, he clings as best he can to life.
“It is difficult for her to tell what happened”
He has kept in touch with Emma, whom he considers a member of his "family".
"I'm happy to see her grow.
She had her baccalaureate, with honors”, proudly says Sébastien, who sees himself as the young woman’s “second dad”.
"Physically, she is restored, apart from a few scars," describes Emma's older sister, Dina, at the helm.
His youngest, Souad, nevertheless specifies that “mentally it is still very complicated”.
His little sister did not wish to come to Paris to testify at the trial.
“It's too difficult for her to tell what happened.
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