The essential
Supply of weapons, false papers, knowledge of deadly projects ... For nearly a month, 14 men have appeared in Paris to answer for their involvement to varying degrees in the attacks of November 13, 2015 which left 131 dead in Saint-Denis (Seine -Saint-Denis) and in Paris.
All our articles on the subject are here.
Last Friday, on the twelfth day of the hearing, the specially composed Assize Court considered the claims of the attacks of November 13, 2015 by the Islamic State (IS).
The day before, the boss of the Institute of Forensic Medicine (IML) recounted the days of horror when it was necessary in particular to present the bodies to the families of the victims.
This Tuesday, the depositions of the civil parties begin.
The relatives of the victims and the survivors of the attacks come to the bar to testify.
This stage of the trial is to continue until the end of October.
The audience, live
14:41.
Witness for history.
The gendarme explains that he is asked by researchers to testify about his experience of the attacks.
“I wrote my story all at once.
It will certainly not be a bestseller but I will give it to my children later ”.
2:39 p.m.
“My therapy is to live overseas”.
The gendarme bursts into tears: "With my family, we had to go."
He wanted to testify to underline “how much human cowardice hurts families.
"
2:36 p.m.
"The shock wave"
felt from the first explosion despite the thickness of the uniform and the bulletproof vest, notes this fourth gendarme, now stationed in Guyana.
“The second explosion, we get debris.
(...) When I returned home, I had bits of flesh in my hair, I hadn't realized it before ”.
2:17 p.m.
“It was my first day of recovery after my paternity leave
,
”
confides a gendarmerie warrant officer at the helm.
In ceremonial uniform, medal on his chest, the man puts his cap on the desk.
"My first daughter was five weeks old, she could never have known her father."
His voice breaks, as he pummels his cap, staring at the ground.
2:13 p.m. "Terrorism is terror"
"They did not put it only on the victims, the wounded. It is terror in the families (..) Everyone was affected in this attack (…) These indirect victims must be taken into account. "The one whose voice fades and who begins to raise his voice at the bar believes that there is" one before the 13th and one after ". After his testimony, the man collapsed in tears on his bench. After his trying testimony, the man is exfiltrated by the psychologists of Paris helping the victims.
2:08 p.m. "Shocked".
In a jerky speech, the Republican Guard continues: “When I get home, my clothes my shoes are full of blood. "He recounts his return home:" I don't have the strength of my comrades, I immediately realize that things are not going well. My family realizes it. I have trouble eating and sleeping. I am hyperactive. He explains that he was on the Champs-Elysées on April 20, 2017 when a police officer was going to be shot. “Life will go on. I am still not well. (…) I am followed in a psychiatric hospital.
2:04 p.m. "I felt that something serious was happening"
, testifies this second Republican guard, who tells almost automatically, the fixed gaze, without winking in front of the court. "" I keep the explosion within me, I keep the noise within me, I keep the smell within me, the man continues. This explosion is going to put us to the ground (…) We are all on alert, ”recalls the one posted at rue de l'Olympisme, near the Stade de France, at the time of the second explosion.
1:59 p.m. "I never talk about it with my family."
The retiree, who had a 33-year career in the gendarmerie at the time of the attacks, delivers his feelings. “We were on the explosion, we had to absorb the shock and then we had to improvise, adapt and react (…) This is THE scene of my career (…) we all did the best we could. we could (…) I had nothing as an injury (…) If I had received even a small bullet ”, he sighs with tears in his eyes, apologizing for the physical injuries. “The only way to mark my body was to get a little tattoo,” he explains. He recounts the day after the attacks: “On the morning of November 14, my wife said to me:
You must talk to the little ones
. I told them:
Ask me five questions each and then we don't talk about it anymore
.
And then there you go, I never talk about it with my family ”.
1:54 p.m.
"I hear a man screaming".
Gradually won by emotion, the Republican Guard takes the court next to the Stade de France, a few moments after the first explosion.
“I throw myself on this first person with the police radio (…) I flatten myself on this gentleman.
(…) He was bleeding from his head.
(…) It is at this moment that I see a man a few meters from me, in a kneeling position.
(…) I had the impression that he was looking at me and there I saw a bare leg.
My first thought is
what is this mannequin doing there, ”
he describes.
13:47.
The first explosion.
“And there an explosion in my back (…) I turn around, it's a surprise (…) there was a lot of smoke.
I said to my colleague: “You see, you have passed your first aid training, you will be able to use it.
"
13:44.
First witness.
Checked shirt, this republican guard of the cavalry regiment was at the Stade de France on the evening of November 13.
At door D.
13:41.
Rejection of the request.
The president explains to have "reflected during the weekend" and not to have "found procedural arguments allowing to privilege testimonies at the bar of civil parties who would not disclose their identity".
The magistrate wishes to preserve respect for the principle of adversarial proceedings, orality and the transparency of debates.
He therefore refuses the anonymity of witnesses.
“The civil parties will always be able to say when they arrive at the bar that they do not want their name to be published in the press.
And I was able to observe that the press was very respectful of these questions ”.
13:13.
New constitutions of civil parties.
To begin with, lawyers and victims come to confirm or announce their constitution of civil parties.
1:08 p.m.
The hearing is resumed.
12:58.
The defendants have taken their places in the box
and are awaiting the start of the hearing.
While the victims of the Stade de France attacks must come and testify, Salah Abdeslam, the main accused in this trial and the only survivor of the commandos who struck Paris, seems to have donned a light gray suit jacket.
12:49.
The hearing should resume in a few minutes
, but as is now customary, the court is late.
12:44. The president's decision.
President Jean-Louis Périès, who will give his decision this Tuesday at the opening of the hearing, seemed hesitant on Friday, arguing in particular of the imperative "of the contradictory" and of the importance "of knowing who it is. acts at the helm ”, both“ for those who follow with the Internet radio and for the historical recording of the debates. "The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) was not opposed to it," on condition that these people can disclose their identity
(Editor's note to the registry)
and that it be entered in the minutes ”of the debates.
The defense, on the other hand, protested: "It's still a departure from our rules, it opens a breach!"
A civil party who is in the case has the choice to testify or not, it is a faculty.
We need to know our identity ”, underlined Me Léa Dordilly.
12:41.
Anonymity of the civil parties?
Two lawyers asked that the names of their clients be recorded by the registry before their testimony but not given to the microphone and in front of the cameras which record the entire trial. "While we are taking so many precautions, and in the special conditions of this trial, I appeal to your power as President", began last Friday Me Dorothée Bisaccia-Bernstein. “We do not ask that they be heard anonymously, but there, people know that their faces will be displayed in four by three; they do not want to give their identity to the microphone and in front of the camera, ”she insisted, pointing to the“ fear ”that some victims felt. "It is not that they would be afraid of the accused, but it is also because when we are victims of November 13,we have a label and they do not want to be identified as such by their employers, ”said Constance Dewavrin.
12:05.
"The only ones capable of telling is us".
From this Tuesday and until the end of October, the specially composed Assize Court will hear the 300 or so victim civil parties who wish to testify.
Jérôme Loquet, 54, “psychically injured” from Bataclan, is one of them.
Find his testimony here.
Find here all our articles on the attacks of November 2015.
12 hours.
Hello and welcome to this live.
You will be able to follow an important day in this historic trial, with all of our reporters present at the Paris tribunal de grande instance.