After three months of hearing, the word was with the accusation this Tuesday at the trial of the Nice attack.
The latter claims between two and 15 years in prison against the eight defendants.
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office (Pnat) has requested 15 years' imprisonment for the three main defendants, who are being prosecuted for "terrorist criminal association", but has however asked the court not to retain the qualification "terrorist". for one of them, Ramzi Arefa, who "provides the weapon (...) used by the terrorist" at the wheel of his ram truck but who "could not know of his radicalization".
In turn, Jean-Michel Bourlès, Alexa Dubourg and Rachel Lecuyer stood up to demonstrate what they believe to be the responsibilities of the accused who appear before the Court of Assizes specially composed in Paris to judge the attack on the Promenade des English.
Seven defendants are present, including four who appear free under judicial control.
An eighth defendant, detained in Tunisia in connection with another case, is being tried in his absence.
“There is no one to answer for the criminal act”
The author of the attack which killed 86 people - including 15 children - and more than 450 injured on the Promenade des Anglais on the evening of July 14, 2016, the Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, shot dead by the police at the end of his race murderer aboard a 19-ton ram truck, is the notable absentee from the trial.
None of the defendants is prosecuted for complicity with the killer.
Only three defendants are prosecuted for terrorist criminal association because of their supposed links with the assailant.
They incur a maximum of 20 years in prison except one of them who incurs life imprisonment because in a state of legal recidivism.
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The other defendants, including four Albanians including a woman, appear for common law offenses related to arms trafficking.
They face a maximum of 10 years in detention.
In the box of the accused, “there is no one to answer for the criminal act.
We have to live with this void” and “consent to the limit that is imposed on human justice”, recalled Thursday Me Sylvie Topaloff, one of the lawyers for some 2,500 civil parties.
VIDEO.
"We must take the little that this trial will bring", the victims of the Nice attack are preparing for 4 months of trial
For five weeks, between September and October, more than 260 bereaved, survivors or relatives of victims came to testify at the bar to say, often in a poignant way, the suffering caused by this attack.
After the defense arguments, scheduled for December 7 to 9, the defendants will have the floor one last time, on December 12, before the court retires to deliberate.
The verdict is expected on Tuesday, December 13.