National Day marks six years since the Nice attack. The town commemorated this Thursday the 86 victims of 18 different nationalities killed in the attack on the Promenade des Anglais, the scene of the tragedy. A stele was unveiled in tribute to the victims. On September 5, the trial will finally begin, for four months. Eight defendants will be in the box, but not the author of the facts, killed the same evening by the police. In 2016, Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack, but it was impossible to really prove the organization’s imprint on the tragedy.
“It will be long and difficult, but we will hold on”
This is a new ordeal that the relatives of the victims will have to go through. For Hager Ben Aouissi, president of the association “A voice of the children”, it is a long-awaited trial for the reconstruction of families. “We cannot expect everything from the trial. The terrorist is dead. He will not be judged for his horrible act by justice. However, I think that the moment of the trial is part of the reconstruction. It is a step in our repair .”
For the president of the association, the trial will be a way for the victims to be heard. “Thanks to our testimonies, we can hope for an awareness of the impact of this explosion in our lives, in the lives of our children. It will be long, it will be difficult, but we have no choice. We’re going to hold on. We have to hold on.”
92 million euros paid to victims of terrorist acts
Eric Dupont-Moretti, Keeper of the Seals, meanwhile, declared that the action of the State is not over, and that it “will continue its action to ensure that each situation is treated with all humanity and the attention it requires”. The procedure is far from over, due in particular to the absence of definitive consolidation of the injuries.
The Minister of Justice also recalled that the monitoring of victims by the State remained intact until the end: “The State, through the Guarantee Fund for Victims of Terrorist Acts, has already paid 92 million euros to the victims, and almost all of the 2,500 victims, direct or indirect, have received an offer of compensation.”
The Keeper of the Seals paid tribute to them on Thursday. “I want to have a thought for the families of foreign victims, who represent a quarter of the victims and almost half of the deceased. They belong to a total of 53 different nationalities. France and 53 other countries were bruised that evening. “