This is the epilogue of the Nice attack trial. This Friday, the special assize court in Paris ruled admissible most of the civil party applications that followed the ram truck attack, paving the way for possible compensation for the victims. On the evening of July 14, 2016, when 25,000 people were gathered on the Promenade des Anglais, Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel deliberately drove into the crowd with a truck. He had killed 86 people, injured more than 400 and traumatized several thousand, before being shot dead by the police.
On December 13, sentences ranging from two to eighteen years in prison were pronounced against eight people. The two main defendants, Chokri Chafroud and Mohamed Ghraieb, found guilty of terrorist criminal association, immediately announced an appeal. Taking into account civil interests after criminal convictions, the special assize court examined 2,600 civil party applications and ruled that only 337 were inadmissible.
First responders dismissed
Among the cases rejected by the court are those of first responders (police, firefighters, rescue workers, etc.) “arrived on the scene after the end of the criminal action”. They “can be declared admissible when they prove that they were before their intervention in the perimeter of exposure to the risk, real or supposed”, indicated the court.
“On the other hand, those who were not on duty and who were called to the scene to take part in the covering of the bodies, the care of the wounded or the preservation of the crime scene, are not admissible in their constitution as civil parties since they arrived on the scene after the end of the criminal action”, ruled the court, thus complying with the latest judgments of the Court of Cassation on the admissibility of civil parties in matters of terrorism.
“However, it is in no way debatable that these first responders may have been lastingly and deeply marked or even traumatized by the exceptionally terrible scenes which they witnessed”, underlined the court.
To be seen as a victim
The admissibility of civil party applications opens the way to possible compensation for damages suffered. Being recognized as a civil party is also highly symbolic for many people, traumatized by the attack and who want to be recognized as victims. Conversely, being deprived of the status of civil party does not make it possible to claim to benefit from any reparations before the Jurisdiction for Compensation of Victims of Acts of Terrorism (Jivat). “A decision of inadmissibility does not mean that the person to whom it applies has not suffered the consequences of the attack”, specified the court in its judgment.
The question of “unborn children”
Against the advice of the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat), it widened the perimeter of exposure to danger by including people who were on the terraces of restaurants on the northern floor of the Promenade des Anglais and those who were on the beaches in the entirely pedestrian perimeter on the evening of the festivities. “People inside restaurants and commercial establishments during the criminal action who cannot legitimately consider themselves exposed to danger will not be declared admissible”, tempered the court.
“Children in the making” at the time of the attack may be declared admissible in their civil action “as soon as they can justify a particular prejudice resulting from the harm done to their parents”, has also decided jurisdiction.
Finally, the civil party applications from associations for the defense of victims (Fenvac, AFVT, Association Promenade des Anges, Memorial des Anges, La voix des enfants and Life for Nice) were declared admissible.