“This trial will only be a step, not an end.
We will not stop.
Zohra Bouhenni-Djoudi and his family will be, this Tuesday, in the room of the 18th correctional chamber of the court of Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine).
In front of them, on the side of the defendants, a couple will be tried for manslaughter.
By storing flammable products on his balcony, the man and woman are accused of being behind the deaths of five members of the Bouhenni family on January 2, 2013. Salah, his wife Najet and their three elderly children from 11 to 18 years old lived in the apartment above, on the 5th floor.
Gennevilliers.
Salah, his wife Najet and their three children, aged 11 to 18, perished in the blaze.
DR
Five people killed by smoke
On the night of the tragedy, a fire broke out shortly before 4:20 a.m. on the couple's balcony located in the Lenin bar at the Lute.
A gas cylinder and two stoves were there.
Stuck in their home, on the floor above, the five members of the Bouhenni family were found dead shortly after 5 a.m.
The autopsy will establish that it was the fumes and not the flames that killed them.
The hearing on Tuesday has long been hoped for by the Bouhenni family.
It was first to be held in May 2020 but a further investigation has been requested.
The case was therefore postponed, for the first time, to November 24.
That day, another cold shower.
"There was a lack of an interpreter," laments Zohra, Salah's older sister.
“You don't just need someone who speaks Arabic or Kabyle Berber.
He must know the Rifi Amazigh of Morocco, a dialect, ”adds Reynald Beaudelain, brother-in-law and uncle by marriage of the victims.
The fire brigade call platform in question, "the military court has been seized"
Whatever happens, this trial will not put an end to the fight of this family and their relatives, who believe that all responsibilities have not been established.
Beyond the outbreak of the fire and who is responsible for it, the Bouhenni call the Paris firefighters to account.
With their lawyer Me Laurent-Franck Liénard, they implicate the operational center, that is to say the call platform, and the soldiers who intervened on the spot.
“The military tribunal, the only one able to deal with the Paris firefighters, was seized.
For now, we are waiting… All this, we will see later, ”comments Saliha, Salah's younger sister.
Gennevilliers.
Eight years after the tragedy, the sisters and the brother-in-law of the victims, Zohra, Saliha and Reynald await answers from the justice system.
DR
Without answers, impossible to close this wound.
This tragedy was a shock for the Luth district where this family had lived since the 1970s. In June 2019, supported by local elected officials, including PCF MP Elsa Faucillon, Reynald Beaudelain had gathered several dozen people at the Aimé space -Césaire in order to take stock of the case.
Three months later, a white march in memory of the victims brought together around a hundred Gennevillois.
"There was the fire and a malfunction worsened the situation, we are convinced of it, insists Zohra.
His determination, however, is not tinged with anger.
“We have neither hatred nor anger.
We do not want a trial for example, but a trial for understanding.
Already that the case is not sent again ”, she asks, in a calm voice.
"This drama traumatized the neighborhood"
His sister nods.
“As long as we do not have these explanations, we will not have the feeling of being recognized as victims.
This fire killed five people and caused other collateral victims: our father died of grief a year later, our mother sank… ”, lists Saliha.
Lute has not forgotten that terrible night either.
"This tragedy traumatized the neighborhood," confirms Zineb Zouaoui, deputy mayor responsible for Lute.
This family was, is, known for its implication in the local life and in particular in sport.
The whole neighborhood and even the whole city gathered during the vigil organized in the wake.
The whole neighborhood was in pain.
"
