The victims, who were shot at close range with a caliber of 7.2, were unrecognizable, a court investigator said
The Bataklan Hall looked like a military zone, an investigator in the case of the 2015 attacks in Paris told a court in Paris today, DPA reported.
Friday’s trial was dedicated to the description of the crime scenes in Bataklan, where 90 people died.
“We had never seen anything like this before. Dried blood, broken teeth, vibrating cell phones, dead bodies, dead bodies, dead bodies …,” the investigator said.
The attackers, two of whom blew themselves up, were difficult to identify at first glance, as were some of the victims.
As he recounted what he had seen in court, the investigator at times had difficulty speaking and finding the right wordsto describe the sight that forensic scientists encountered immediately after the attack at the Bataklan concert hall.
“I want everyone to imagine what does it mean to shoot 7.2 caliber. They don’t just have an entry wound and an exit wound, “the official said, adding that the victims who were shot at close range were unrecognizable.
“I was left with the impression that they had been executed one by one,” he explained as he spoke about the bodies of the victims.
As they killed their victims, terrorists shouted that they were doing so because France was bombing their brothers in Syria and Iraq.
“Why are we doing this? You are bombing our brothers in Syria and Iraq and we came here to do the same,” one of the attackers shouted, according to an audio recording of the attack analyzed by French police.
No less than 258 shots were fired in the first 32 minutes.
The trial for the 2015 Paris attacks began on September 8th. The accused are 20 people involved in the jihadist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015, in which 130 people were killed and hundreds were injured. Among the defendants is Salah Abdeslam, who has French and Moroccan citizenship and is believed to be the only survivor of the group of terrorists who carried out the bloody attacks.
The case is being heard under exceptional security measures.
The process is expected to last nine months. This month is dedicated to presenting the evidence gathered. The victims will speak in October. Officials such as former President Francois Hollande and relatives of the attackers will testify from November to December. From January to March 2022, the accused will be interrogated. Abdeslam will be questioned several times. In early April, experts will present a psychological assessment of the accused. The final arguments will be presented in May next year, with the verdicts expected at the end of the same month.
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