In Paris today, with the strictest security measures and great media interest, a historic trial began with the alleged perpetrators of a series of coordinated attacks on six different places in Paris on 13 November 2015.
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The suspects arrived at the Palace of Justice in the center of the French capital this afternoon and shortly after 1 p.m., the trial began. Accused Salah Abdeslam, who is considered the only survivor of the direct accomplices in the assassinations, identified himself as a soldier of the Islamic State at the beginning of the trial.
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130 people died in the Paris attacks and hundreds more were assassinated. The trial, which French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti called a judicial marathon, is scheduled to run until the end of May 2022. 20 people are being indicted, six of whom are on the run. Most defendants face life imprisonment. Seven suicide bombers died in the attacks.
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According to Reuters, three suspects arrived at the building first, who did not have to wait behind bars for the trial. Today, the defendants were brought one by one into the area behind the safety toughened glass on the side of the courtroom, specially adapted to a process of enormous proportions. Armed police officers guarded the courtroom.
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There is no god but Allah
Salah Abdeslam, a 31-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan origin, also took his place on the dock in the courtroom. However, Abdeslam did not appear to be directly involved in the murder either. He declared in court today that he was a “soldier of the Islamic State”. It was this terrorist organization that had previously claimed responsibility for the assassination and called on its supporters to attack France for its involvement in the fight against IS in Iraq and Syria. “There is no god but Allah,” said Abdeslam.
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The trial has almost 1800 participants, reading their names takes the first two days of the trial. The documents for the process have 542 volumes. According to the preliminary program, the court will have at least 140 hearing days. The judgment is currently scheduled to be read on May 25, 2022.
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On the fateful day, suicide bombers killed in front of the Stade de France and shooters elsewhere in Paris, especially at the Bataclan music club, where the vast majority of victims come from. Most of the accused in the trial, which takes place in a specially built large-capacity hall with 550 seats in the Palace of Justice, are people who helped the assassins, for example by providing weapons, but did not directly participate in the attacks. Only Abdeslam, who according to the investigation brought, among other things, the assassins to the crime scene, is considered to be their direct actor.
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Already this morning, a strictly secured convoy left Fleury-Mérogis Prison south of Paris, which apparently brought Abdeslam and other defendants to the Palace of Justice. All persons heading for the Palace of Justice were subjected to a thorough security check by the security forces. To secure the trial, nearly a thousand law enforcement officers were mobilized, 630 of whom were deployed around and inside the Palace of Justice, the AFP agency said, referring to the Interior Ministry. “The whole world is looking at us,” Justice Minister Dupond-Moretti told the media.
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“The terrorist threat in France is high, especially in times such as the attack on the attackers,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in an interview with France Inter. “I called on all prefects to be cautious,” the minister added.
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Abdeslam, the son of Moroccan immigrants, is due to speak for the first time in court on January 13 next year, but it is uncertain whether he will be willing to testify. The first of the defendants should be the Belgian Mohamed Abrini, who, in addition to the assassinations in Paris, is also associated with the bombings in Brussels in March 2016, which claimed 32 lives. The defense will come to the fore on May 6.
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The expected date in the trial is also September 28, when survivors and survivors of the victims will testify. It will testify to 300 people in five weeks. Among them will be former French President François Hollande, who was at a football match at the stadium in Saint-Denis, where the first attack took place. This was followed by attacks on Parisian bars and restaurants and the assassination of the Bataclan concert hall, which claimed by far the most casualties.
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Philippe Duperron, whose 30-year-old son was mortally wounded at Bataclan on a fateful night, wants to give “a word to all those who are no longer here” during the trial. “Memories remain in memory and never come out,” added former Paris prosecutor François Molins, according to AFP.
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