Process for the series of attacks in Paris: expectations, emotions and provocations

20 defendants, 14 of them actually sitting in the courtroom, and around 1,000 journalists from all over the world watched the start of the trial of the 2015 series of attacks in Paris. It is already considered historic in France.

The hall built especially for the trial only fills up slowly. More than 500 people have space in the negotiation room, which was placed in the middle of the great hall of the Paris Palace of Justice. The white wooden benches are only sparsely occupied. The black of the attorney’s robes dominates the front – more than 300 attorneys are present. They represent a large number of the nearly 1,800 co-plaintiffs – survivors and relatives of the victims.

“We have been waiting for this process for so long,” says Dominique Kielemoes. She is the vice-president of the victims’ organization 131115, her son Victor was killed on November 13th on the terrace of the bar La Belle Equipe. Kielemoes is one of the few co-plaintiffs who are in court on this first day of the trial. The petite woman with the white hair wears a green ribbon around her neck – the sign for journalists that she wants to talk:

We know this process will not ease our pain. But we still waited for him. We are a democratic country and the criminals must be tried. The process will take a long time and it will cost us strength. But we are ready.

Main defendant provoked

This is what Kielemoes says after one of the main defendants has already been violently provoked. She looks tense and yet calm, even after Salah Abdeslam, the only person still alive who was directly involved in the attacks, clearly committed himself to the so-called Islamic State in court.

The cold-bloodedness with which the 31-year-old refused to give the presiding judge, Jean Louis Périès, information about his personal details and first of all declared that there was only one authority for him – Allah – made many in the room shudder. And that, although it was already clear in advance that Abdelslam would provoke if he spoke at all.

Salah Abdeslam’s explosive vest was not activated

“It was absolutely no surprise,” says Samia Maktouf, attorney for the accessory prosecution. “What else should he say? He is completely absorbed in this deadly ideology. He does not recognize this court, just as little as the laws of this republic. He confirms that once again.”

Even while the names of the co-plaintiffs were being read out, the defendant continued to provoke. Salah Abdeslam is said to have driven three suicide bombers to the Stade de France football stadium, his own explosive vest was not activated. Why is still unclear today. He has been in custody since 2016, first in Belgium, then in France.

Hope for cooperation already extinguished

He is probably the only one of the 14 defendants present who could really bring new information, says victim lawyer Samia Maktouff. “The co-plaintiffs had a small hope that he would talk, that he would be cooperative and give answers, but – and we have already seen that – that will not be the case.”

The defendants, who are guarded by police in a glass box in the courtroom, will not testify until the beginning of next year. Before that, the court wants to hear over 300 survivors of the attacks, as well as emergency services and witnesses who had to witness the most serious attacks that have ever rocked France.

At the start of the process, the presiding judge made it clear that it was a historical process that exceeded previously known dimensions. A process outside of any norm. With one caveat: In this process, too, it is a question of not pronouncing the judgment until all those involved have been heard – survivors, bereaved, the prosecution and also the defense. Only in this way, said the experienced judge Jean-Louis Périès, can the judiciary meet the requirements of the rule of law with dignity.