After another week of interruption due to the Covid, the trial of the November 13 attacks resumed on Tuesday with a highlight: the hearing of the members of the rock band Eagles of Death Metal, who were performing at the Bataclan in 2015 when three suicide bombers burst into the performance hall, killing 90 people.
At the time, the group, safe and sound but deeply shocked, had “finished” its concert at the Olympia three months later, inviting the survivors of the Bataclan to attend. “The Parisians have always been amazing to us, and that feeling has been reinforced a million times over the past month. Hearing the stories of the survivors, the injured and those who have lost the people in their lives has overwhelmed us,” said its leader Jesse Hughes.
“They wanted to silence ‘joie de vivre’, but they failed”
“I didn’t think I would have the strength to go back on stage… The terrorists wanted to silence ‘la joie de vivre’ (in French), but they failed,” he confided, moved, to bar. Another member of the group, Eden Galindo, also testified: “I felt like broken when we got home. it was hard for me to talk about normal things. I’ll never be the same after that night.”
Relive their hearing with our reporter at the hearing, Xavier Frère:
The trial verdict, initially announced on May 24 or 25, has already been pushed back a month after several Covid cases among the defendants over the winter, including Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the terrorist commandos. It could now take place on June 29, or even early July.