The hearings of the civil parties ended on Friday before the specially composed Assize Court of Paris.
The hearings of the civil parties, survivors or relatives of the victims of the attacks of November 13, ended Friday before the specially composed Assize Court of Paris, paving the way for the last phase of the trial with, from Monday, the beginning of the pleadings of their lawyers.
Fifteen people took the helm, in turn delivering poignant testimonies about their lives turned upside down by November 13.
“When we are still alive after this kind of event, we bear the responsibility of life. There is an urgency to living. We bear the responsibility of living for those who died. We love harder, we laughs louder, we cry louder. And we also yell louder,” said Floriane, a Bataclan survivor who lost her fiancé Renaud, “the man of (her) life”, during the attack.
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The “forgotten” of November 13, residents of the building on rue du Corbillon in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) where the alleged organizer of the attacks of November 13, 2015 Abdelhamid Abaaoud had taken refuge, his cousin and Chakib Akrouh, a member of the terraces commando, also came to express their distress in the face of the court.
The building where they lived was stormed by Raid police on November 18 and partially destroyed. The families, often of foreign nationality, who lost their homes after the attack, would also like to be recognized as “victims of terrorism”.
“My husband, I hear him cry at night,” Héléna told the bar in a barely audible voice. “We are forgotten victims, victims who have been left aside,” she added, accompanied at the helm by two of her children.
“What we went through, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone”
“A lot of lives have been ruined and ours too”, summed up Akesia, who came to simply “claim justice”.
“What we went through, I wouldn’t wish on anyone. What we endured afterwards, I wouldn’t wish on anyone. What I went through with my son, I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” said the young Guadeloupean, her voice charged with emotion.
From Monday, the trial will enter its last phase with the pleadings of the lawyers of the civil parties, scheduled until the beginning of June, before the requisitions of the national anti-terrorism prosecution and then the pleadings of the defense.
The trial, which began on September 8, is expected to be completed by the end of June.
Twenty defendants, including six tried in absentia, are appearing before the special assize court for their involvement in the attacks that left 130 dead and hundreds injured in Paris and Saint-Denis on November 13, 2015. Twelve face life imprisonment, among which the only living member of the commandos, Salah Abdeslam.