On the day of October 29, 2020, for the relatives of Nadine Devillers, Simone Barreto Silva and Vincent Loquès, everything changed. That morning, these two parishioners and the sacristan of the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice were stabbed by a young Tunisian terrorist. Two years later, for these families who will meet on Saturday for commemorations, the wound is still gaping.
The work of mourning continues while waiting for answers. And a future trial. In any case, the investigations are on target. The judicial investigation opened, among other things, for “assassinations and attempted assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise” could “end within a few months and even before the end of the year”, announces to 20 minutes a source close to the investigation.
The amnesic perpetrator?
Only a few details related to its international dimension, the suspect of Tunisian nationality having passed through Italy, would still remain to be completed. On the merits, “there are no major new elements” in the file, specifies Me Philippe Soussi, the lawyer for Joffrey Devillers, the husband of the first victim.
Last spring, the civil parties were able to obtain the conclusions of a psychiatric expertise of the assailant Brahim Aouissaoui, now 24 years old and who says he does not remember the facts. And according to counsel, neurological scans showed it was “possible or conceivable that there could be amnesia regarding the day” of the attack, with the gunshot suspect given anesthesia and sedation, but not beyond. This “defense system” would be a way “to flee from one’s responsibilities” and “to steal the trial from the civil parties in advance”, denounced then Me Philippe Soussi.
“We don’t forget and we hang on”
However, the three families of the victims “are waiting for explanations” even “if it will be, a priori, complicated to obtain them”, fears Joffrey Devillers, questioned by 20 minutes. “The important thing is that justice is done” but, in the meantime, “we do not forget and we cling”, he explains, ensuring that he is “always in contact” with the relatives of the two other victims.
“Everyone reacts differently. Me, I’m fine, I’m lucky to be well surrounded. And I’m working, everything is going well, ”also specifies the fifty-something that the city of Nice had hired shortly after the attack. First in the staff of its public relations department then, for a few months, within the new Agency for health and environmental safety and risk management of the metropolis. An entity launched on July 23, 2020 and in particular intended to provide support… in the event of an attack.
This Saturday, before a mass presided over by the Bishop of Nice at 9 a.m., Joffrey Devillers will meet with the families of Simone Barreto Silva and Vincent Loquès, for a moment of meditation, in front of the statue of the artist Théo Tobiasse, inaugurated on year on the forecourt of the basilica. And the town hall makes it known that “all the people of Nice will be able to place a white rose” at the foot of this “Dove of peace”.