“The events that occurred on November 13 changed my life forever,” said during his hearing and via an interpreter, Jesse Hughes, dressed all in black with a red lace around his neck. In a loud and clear voice, the rocker recalled how, “in the middle of the concert”, he heard shots. “Coming from a desert community in Florida, I know the sound of guns. I recognized it was shooting,” he said, “I knew what was coming, I felt death approaching me.”
That evening, “90 of my friends were killed in a heinous way in front of us”, he testifies with emotion. “Everyone who was at the concert that night was my friend.” “What the attackers tried to do that night was to silence the joy linked to the music, but they failed”, continues the singer, who claims to have “forgiven” the “poor souls who committed these deeds”. “I pray for them and for their souls, that the light of our Lord shines on them”, he says before concluding with words from singer Ozzy Osbourne: “you can’t kill rock’n’roll”, “we can’t kill rock’n’roll”.
At the end of the hearing, the artist spoke to the press: “I forgive them and I hope that they (the jihadists) will find the peace of God”.
The Eagles of Death Metal concert at the Bataclan was abruptly interrupted the evening of the attacks by Kalashnikov fire. 90 people had been killed in the concert hall. Several dozen survivors or relatives of the victims of the jihadist attacks which left 130 dead in total and hundreds injured in Paris and Saint-Denis must testify until Friday, at the rate of around twenty hearings a day. The verdict is expected on June 29.
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