The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 will be able to continue from this Thursday.
Tested positive for the coronavirus at the end of December, while France faces the double health threat of the Delta variant and the Omicron, the main accused and the only survivor of the terrorist commandos which bloodied Paris and Saint-Denis six years ago ( 130 dead), should again be able to appear.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (Pnat) indicates that Salah Abdeslam is able to appear at the hearing scheduled for Thursday. "The president of the specially composed Assize Court confirmed to the parties the information he had given at yesterday's hearing that Salah Abdeslam was kept in medical isolation until Wednesday January 5, 2022 inclusive" , indicates the text.
"From a health point of view, nothing is opposed to its extraction on Thursday, January 6, 2022 for the resumption of the hearing", then announced the Pnat, citing the president of the Special Assize Court , Jean-Louis Périès.
The magistrate, however, "ordered additional medical expertise to determine whether Salah Abdeslam would be able to appear at the hearing on Thursday" which "must be carried out today, Wednesday January 5," the statement said.
Sanitary puzzle
Since the revelation of the Covid-19 positivity of the main accused of this marathon trial, held in solitary confinement at Fleury-Mérogis prison and probably contaminated by one of the personnel dedicated to his surveillance, the puzzle of calculation necessary periods of sanitary isolation were imposed on the specially composed Assize Court.
There was first question of a 48-hour postponement - that is to say to January 6 - then of a suspension until January 13 before we come back to this date of January 4 to decide.
VIDEO.
Trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015: Salah Abdeslam "plays the nice little boy"
The resurgence of the epidemic is in any case weighing a sword of Damocles on this long trial which began on September 8 and ended at the end of May and where twenty defendants are being tried, including fourteen present.
"When we see the density of the box, there is a real risk that other defendants will fall ill", fears Me Gérard Chemla, lawyer of civil parties, for whom "a strong uncertainty looms".
The sequence which opens, devoted to the first interrogations of the defendants on the facts, was to begin this Tuesday with that of Mohamed Abrini, known as "the man in the hat" of the attacks of March 22, 2016 in Brussels.
It will therefore begin this Thursday with that of the Swedish jihadist Osama Krayem.