It starts this Wednesday.
And it will bring 1800 civil parties, 300 attorneys and 141 media from around the world to the stands.
Maria Laura Avignolo
09/07/2021 11:34
Clarín.com
World
Updated 09/07/2021 11:34
The trial of the terrorist attacks in the cafes, terraces and the show hall of the Bataclán de Paris on November 13, 2015 will begin this Wednesday, in Paris.
In a specially integrated criminal court and under an unprecedented organization there will be
1800 civil parties
, more than 300 lawyers and 141 accredited media from all over the world.
A historic process, which will reopen the nightmare of the multiple attacks by
three ISIS commandos on
the Stade de France and the cafes of the X and XI neighborhood, on a mild November night, which left
130 dead,
including seven of the assailants, 354 hospitalized and hundreds of traumatized.
Members of the band Eagles of Death Metal pay tribute to the victims who died at the Bataclan.
Photo: AP
A single survivor
The process will take place
for almost nine months
before the Special Court.
Historic in the magnitude of the tragedy, it was the deadliest attack ever committed in France and with
only one survivor
of the terrorists, Salah Abdeslam, who so far refuses to open his mouth.
The test will last 9 months, for a gigantic archive.
The investigation into the November 13 attacks
lasted four and a half years
.
Nine counterterrorism judges worked on this case.
In total, the file made up of investigative acts, testimonies, expert opinions, among others, is colossal:
542 volumes per one million pages.
Salah Abdeslam, the only terrorist survivor of the attacks.
Photo: AP
At the end of their work, the judges referred
20 people
to the court, specially composed to try terrorism cases.
All are suspected of having had a role in the preparation or carrying out of the attacks of November 13, 2015. Given the magnitude of the case, the number of defendants and civil parties - almost 1,800 - has provided hearings for almost nine months.
A historic trial in a special room
The trial must be held until May 25, 2022, after two days of reading the verdict, or 140 days of hearing initially scheduled.
The specially composed Court of Justice will meet from Tuesday to Friday at 12:30, as well as some Mondays.
However, there will be no hearing on November 13.
A
courtroom
has been
specially built
.
About 1,800 people, of a score of nationalities, have already become a civil party in this trial.
If everyone does not want to participate, many of them will attend the discussions.
For justice, the first challenge was then to find
a place to receive them
, as well as their 300 lawyers, who are joined by journalists from the 141 accredited media and the general public.
For the trial, a courtroom has been specially built.
Photo: AP
Initially, it was even considered to hold the trial under a marquee on the outskirts of Paris.
But for all the actors involved, it was very clear that this trial had to take place in a place of justice.
Therefore, a room was built entirely to host the debates, in the old courthouse in Paris, on the Ile de la Cité. The deadline was tight as work started in March 2020 and was completed in early summer, just a few weeks ago.
The "Great Trial" room, 45 meters long and 15 meters wide, has a capacity of 550 seats.
In this room, it was necessary to "optimize every square meter," explained Jean-Michel Hayat, first president of the Paris Court of Appeal.
For example, you want seven additional desks to be set up so that all defense attorneys can sit when they were initially assigned 24 seats.
Some fifteen rooms of the Court of Appeal may also be used to broadcast the proceedings, with a total capacity of between 1,000 and 1,200 seats.
The glass "box" from which Salah Abdeslam declared.
Photo: AP
Great security
The security system
will be exceptional.
A perimeter will be established on court days around the courthouse with checkpoints at the entrance to the perimeter.
Vehicles will also be registered.
Traffic on the street is also prohibited on the Boulevard du Palais and on the Quai des Orfèvres and the Quai de l'Horloge.
Pedestrians will also be prohibited from entering the Quai des Orfèvres, but will be allowed on other axes.
The routes of the buses that pass through this perimeter have been modified.
Paris is
on "attack alert"
since those terrorist acts.
Access to the courthouse will also be closely guarded.
Gated controls will take place at the courthouse entrance on rue de Harlay.
A sense of movement to the courtroom has also been established.
There, more checks will be carried out.
In the area around the main courtroom, a maximum capacity of 1000 people will be installed.
Access to the courthouse will also be closely guarded.
Photo: AP
Finally, to protect the victims and their families who will attend the trial, a cordon system has been planned to differentiate those who agree to testify before journalists and those who refuse.
The hearings
will be filmed
.
The trial of the November 13 attacks will be the thirteenth trial, in 35 years, filmed for the purpose of building historical archives.
One excruciating night
"Where were you the night of the attacks?"
The question is asked by families and friends who remember that atrocious and rarely mild night in Paris.
The first attack was at the Stade de France, where two terrorists were detonated and the third decided not to.
Salah Abdeslam is the only one who survived, he is imprisoned in France and
has not spoken
.
He was arrested in a spectacular raid in Belgium and extradited to Paris.
President Francois Hollande was watching a game in the stadium and managed to be removed from custody.
The Moroccan Belgian
Abdelhamid Abboud
played a decisive role in the attacks in Paris.
They were planned in Raqqa, Syria, by
Amn al Kharji, in
charge of Daech (ISIS) foreign operations with a large team, over several months, and involved
the training of commandos.
Coordinated operation
The terrorists come from Brussels to Paris and are staying in three different places.
At 7:40 p.m. they start the operation.
The first team leaves for the Stade de France.
Two of them detonate except for Salah Abdeslam.
The first civilian death.
The attacks are carried out in a coordinated manner.
The terraces and cafes follow, one by one, where they shoot people sitting outdoors and indoors.
Then they storm the Bataclan
, where there was a heavy metal concert.
Wounded are evacuated from the Bataclan.
Photo: AP
It was 21.25 when the second command intervened in the bars of the 1st and 11th neighborhoods of Paris.
At the cry of "Allahu Akbar" and "It is for Syria" they massacre innocents.
That assault caused 39 deaths
and more than 33 wounded. More than 400 shots were fired on the terrace of
Petit Cambodge and Carillon
, two of the restaurants and bars attacked.
Brahim Abdeslam blows himself up with an explosive belt in a cafe on Boulevard Voltaire.
He leaves two seriously injured but he volatilizes.
He is the brother of the terrorist survivor.
At 9:40 p.m. the assault on Bataclán begins
, a mythical place in eastern Paris
.
The command is made up of three French, all domiciled in the Ille de France.
For more than 20 minutes,
the group coldly murders viewers,
one by one, and seeks to bring down the American heavy metal band Eagles of Death Metal.
"Where is the singer?" Asks one of the terrorists.
"It is because of all the evil that Hollande has done to Muslims in all parts of the world," they explained to those who were going to assassinate.
Human shields are placed on the windows and doors.
All hostages.
The Bataclán, a mythical place in eastern Paris.
Photo: AP
The massacre leaves 90 dead and dozens injured before the police intervene.
At 10 pm, eight soldiers from the anti-terrorist operation Sentinelle arrive but are not authorized to intervene or give up their war rifles to the police, who arrive shortly after.
This showed
the lack of a plan
but they also complied with the military ordinance never to give their Fama rifles to anyone.
These two arriving police officers are the first to intervene in civilian clothes and to shoot down the terrorist Samy Amimour at 22.7, who
detonates with his belt
of explosives.
The other two assailants are on the first floor, with their hostages.
At 10:16 p.m., sixty BRI men replace the two policemen plus ten from the RAI special forces.
They secure the Bataclán room and 40 BRI men go up to the first floor, where the terrorists are entrenched with their hostages.
The
negotiations are unsuccessful
.
The assault begins at 12:18.
They advance room by room.
After a few minutes, the two terrorists are killed by the brigade without further casualties.
The evacuation of the Bataclan begins shortly after, in a terrified neighborhood, which in a few minutes became
a scene of war and death.
The curfew was in force.
But the violence was not over.
After hiding in some bushes in Aubervilliers, the police discover Adelhamid Abboud, the leader of the terrorists, the coordinator.
They follow him to rue Corbillon in Saint Denis.
There they go to die along with two of their henchmen and their cousin, Hasna Ait Boulahcen, imploded, after a fierce shooting.
They are
the worst attacks perpetrated in France
after the Second World Cup and with the highest death toll, after the Al Qaida attacks in Madrid on March 11, 2004, a horror that changed the face of the country, which lives today under "Attack Alert".
Paris, correspondent
ap
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