The trial of the November 13 attacks in Paris was again suspended Tuesday until March 1 due to two new cases of Covid-19 among the defendants.
“
The hearing is resumed but it is resumed expeditiously because we have two defendants affected by the Covid
”, announced the president of the special assize court, Jean-Louis Périès.
The two new defendants who tested positive for Covid-19 are Tunisian Sofien Ayari and Belgian-Moroccan Mohamed Bakkali.
"
I got in touch with the prison administration to understand how the defendants could have been contaminated
", indicated Jean-Louis Périès, recalling that "
less than 50 detainees out of 13,000
" are infected with the virus in the prisons of Ile. -of France.
"
It's bad luck, especially since the circulation of the virus is considerably reduced
, ”lamented the president.
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The trial is already four weeks late.
"
If all goes well
," said Jean-Louis Périès, the hearing will resume next Tuesday with the hearing of the Belgian investigators, in the order that was scheduled for this week.
An exceptional hearing will take place on Monday March 7, Jean-Louis Périès also announced.
The president told the parties that he was working on a new agenda and that he was now counting on an end to the trial at the end of June.
The trial had already been suspended on February 15 after the positive test of Belgian-Moroccan Mohamed Amri and Algerian Adel Haddadi.
"
Messrs. Ayari and Bakkali underwent a PCR test (Sunday) with a positive result: they are subject to sanitary isolation until February 27.
Mohamed Amri was also still tested positive.
On the other hand, Adel Haddadi benefited from a lifting of sanitary isolation
, ”announced Monday Jean-Louis Périès in a letter addressed to the various parties.
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The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 - which left 130 dead in Paris and Saint-Denis - began on September 8, 2021. Already in early January, the trial had been suspended after the main defendant, Salah Abdeslam, had been tested positive for coronavirus.
The hearing resumed on January 11 and was again postponed on January 18, after Ali El Haddad Asufi, also detained, tested positive.
The debates had started again on January 25, before being interrupted in mid-February.
After a first phase of interrogation of the accused, for nearly a month, the hearing was normally to resume on Tuesday with new hearings from investigators.
