The main defendant had tested positive Monday, December 27, resulting in a postponement of the river trial which was initially due to resume on Tuesday. The result of Abdeslam’s PCR test being negative today, the hearing will resume this Thursday.
“From a health point of view, nothing is against its extraction on Thursday, January 6, 2022 for the resumption of the hearing.” It is in a statement that the national anti-terrorism prosecutor (Pnat) announced this Wednesday, citing the president of the special assize court, Jean-Louis Périès, that the trial of the attacks of November 13 can resume on Thursday.
Salah Adbeslam had tested positive for covid-19 last month and the results of his PCR test were still pending on Tuesday, delaying the resumption of the hearing. “I have just been told that the laboratory has still not transmitted to Fleury [où est détenu Salah Abdeslam] the results of the PCR test of Salah Abdeslam ”, the president had indicated at the opening of the hearing before adding: “But normally we resume on Thursday.”
Several clusters in prison
The only survivor of the jihadist commandos which left 130 dead and hundreds wounded in Paris and Saint-Denis in November 2015, Salah Abdeslam, who has not appeared at the hearing since November 25, tested positive on Monday 27 December. The hearing, which was to resume on Tuesday, had been postponed, giving rise to fears of an upheaval of this trial with precise planning.
The accused is being held in Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne) prison, south of Paris, where several sources of contamination have been detected recently. In solitary confinement, however, the prisoner is not in a bubble. He can receive his lawyers and works with supervisors on a daily basis.
Update : Wednesday January at 4 p.m., PCR test of Salah Abdeslam negative, resumption of the hearing Thursday