Status: 08.09.2021 6:06 p.m.
130 people died and hundreds were injured: the trial of the Islamist terrorist attacks of November 2015 began in Paris. The importance of the process is immense. A judgment is not expected until May 2022 at the earliest.
It is to be the most comprehensive process in the history of France: Almost six years after the traumatizing attacks on November 13, 2015 in Paris, 20 alleged parties are now to answer to a specially assembled jury. “We are starting a process that is considered historic,” said presiding judge Jean-Louis Périès at the beginning.
In the attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, the Paris football stadium, as well as restaurants and cafes in the French capital, nine gunmen and suicide bombers from the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS) killed 130 people and injured hundreds more.
At the start of the trial, some of the defendants were taken into a glass section of the courtroom. Among them was too the only suspected attacker still alive, Salah Abdeslam. The trial of six of the defendants takes place in absentia.
Abdeslam is committed to IS
Abdeslam already confessed to the IS jihadist militia when the personal details were established. “I gave up every profession in order to become a fighter for the Islamic State,” Abdeslam replied when asked about his profession. After giving his personal details, he recited a prayer.
The 31-year-old is said to have brought three of the attackers to the football stadium and wore an explosive belt himself. Abdeslam had spent the past five years in solitary confinement and so far refused to testify.
The terror suspect Salah Abdeslam admitted to the prelude to “IS”:
Image: AFP
The process should take several months
On the first two days of the trial, the nearly 1,800 co-plaintiffs will be called, including those affected and their relatives from around 20 countries. The process is said to take nine months. The results of the investigation and evidence are to be presented in September. Victims are to have their say in October, government officials in November and December, including the then President François Hollande, but also relatives of the attackers.
A judgment is not expected until May 2022 at the earliest. Abdeslam and several other defendants face life sentences. “The whole world is watching us,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told French TV channels. The events were etched deep into the collective memory, he added.
The series of attacks from 2015
Islamist extremists attacked numerous targets in the French capital, Paris, in a coordinated action on the evening of November 13, 2015. In the Bataclan concert hall they caused a massacre during a performance by the band “Eagles of Death Metal” and killed 90 people. They shelled bars and restaurants in the east of the city. Suicide bombers blew themselves up at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis during the soccer friendly between Germany and France. These were the most momentous attacks in peacetime for France to date. A total of 130 people died.
Laschet visits memorial
In Paris, Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet commemorated the victims and laid a rose on a memorial stone. “That was an attack on our way of life,” said the CDU chief. “We need more Europe against terrorism,” he said, pointing out that the perpetrators had come from Brussels and traveled through Germany to then carry out an attack in Paris. “Germany and France can be a motor for Europe here,” said the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister.
The trial in Paris is expected to take nine months – a verdict is expected in 2022 at the earliest.
Image: AFP
A total of almost 1,000 security guards are on duty to secure the process in Paris. A new room with 550 seats has been set up in the historic Palace of Justice on the Ile-de-la-Cité. The negotiations can be transferred to about ten other halls. The trial is to be filmed for posterity.