• Léana, two and a half years old at the time of July 14, 2016 in Nice, is the youngest victim of this attack.

  • His mother, Margaux Dariste, testified this Wednesday at the trial of the attack which has been held at the Special Assize Court in Paris since September 5.

“Life is so long without you”.

With simple words, Margaux Dariste sent a heartbreaking message to the Special Assize Court on Wednesday to her daughter Léana, the youngest victim of the Nice attack in 2016, mowed down at the age of 2 and a half on the Promenade des Anglais.

His way of honoring the memory of Léana, at the trial which has been held in Paris since September 5.

More than six years later, the feeling of absurdity and injustice of this death still invades the young woman.

“Today is Wednesday, you should have been home with me.

But I am here and I pay homage to you, because we did not know how to protect you and put you in safety in your country, in your city, ”she says.

Throughout her testimony, a photo of Léana is projected: a little girl with blond braids, with denim overalls, smiles at the audience in the courtroom.

The immense "void" in his heart

Often in tears, Margaux says her eternal love for her “mini-me”, which she had at 19, when she herself was “still a baby”.

She also says the immense "emptiness" in her heart since her disappearance, which "nothing can replace".

On July 14, 2016, she had just entrusted Léana to her father, Kamel, from whom she had recently been separated.

On the program, a festive family moment on the beach then the fireworks, on the Promenade des Anglais.

On the way back, Kamel's mother, Laurence, held her two grandchildren by the hand: Léana on one side, her cousin Yanis, 8, on the other.

They all three lost their lives, hit by the ram truck driven by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, which voluntarily drove into the crowd, killing 86 and injuring more than 450.

“Did you see that big truck coming at you?

Were you scared, before your little body fell to the ground?

she wonders.

A family friend, Mohamed, is also killed.

His relatives will testify at the trial on Wednesday afternoon.

“Finding the strength to get up every day”

After the drama, Kamel and Margaux get back together, "thinking maybe to rebuild each other".

They had two little girls, now aged 5 and 2, before separating again.

Two little girls she can't help but overprotect: "When I put your sisters to bed, or drop them off at school, or leave them with dad, I say to myself: is this the last time ?

Have I told them enough how much I love them?

".

"Two hearts that I have to make beat every day", but which are not enough to give him back the taste for life: "Today, even with two magnificent little girls, sometimes when it's too hard I tell myself that if I'm too tired, one day, I'll stop everything.

Or I will wait until they are well in their life to leave”.

Of his life before, “today, there is nothing left: appointments with the doctor, the psychiatrist, medication, insomnia.

Find the strength to get up, not one day, but every day”, despite the “inner damage (…) that hits your brain from morning to night”.

"I'm 28, I feel like I'm 45," says the young woman with a youthful look - high ponytail and black and white checkered overshirt.

“What will your death have changed?

Plots on the Promenade des Anglais »

Of the “insane person” who crossed paths with her family, she says: “I will never know if he saw you, and if when he saw you he turned the steering wheel on purpose.

And in any case, his goal was to kill you, and he did it”.

“It would be lying to say that I have no hatred, that I forgive.

I don't forgive anything, and I'm very happy that he died today, ”she adds.



Like many civil parties before her, she also mentions her resentment at the lack of security on the famous avenue niçoise, that evening.

“What will your death have changed?

Plots on the Promenade des Anglais.

It's good to have thought of that, now that you're gone”.

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  • Justice

  • July 14 attack in Nice

  • Nice

  • Paca

  • Court case

  • Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel

  • Testimony