Salah Abdeslam acknowledges “errors” while waiting to know this Wednesday the sentence of the trial for the terrorist attacks of November 2015
The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris and Saint-Denis, in which 130 people died and 350 were injured, has been seen for sentencing this Monday, after 148 days of hearing. The verdict of the macro trial, which began on September 8, 2021, is expected this Wednesday.
Thirteen of the fourteen defendants present -six are tried in absentia- spoke today for the last time in the special court in Paris that judges them. The Prosecutor’s Office has requested sentences ranging from five years in prison to life imprisonment for those accused, allegedly involved, to a greater or lesser extent, in the attacks.
“I recognize that I have not been perfect. I have made mistakes, it is true, but I am not a murderer. If they convict me of murder, they will commit an injustice,” said Salah Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the terrorist commandos who attacked Paris. The Prosecutor’s Office asks that he be sentenced to life imprisonment without reduction of sentence.
Abdeslam considers that, whatever the sentence, public opinion has already condemned him beforehand. «For public opinion he was on the terraces with a kalashnikov, or he was in the Bataclan shooting at people. But you, Mr. President (of the court), know that the truth is that I did the opposite », the accused recalled in his final argument.
The 32-year-old jihadist was part of the 13N terrorist commandos, but, at the last moment, he changed his mind and did not activate his explosives belt. At the start of the trial, he was more defiant, claiming to be “an Islamic State fighter.”
Abdeslam once again apologized to the victims and the families of the victims. “Many will say that they are not sincere. With more than 130 dead and more than 400 injured, who can make insincere excuses for so much suffering?
After more than nine months of trial, the magistrates that make up the court will lock themselves up for two and a half days in a military barracks to deliberate and determine the sentence that corresponds to each of the accused. For security reasons, the location of the military headquarters is kept secret.
In the 13N attacks, 130 people died in a series of coordinated jihadist attacks at various points in the French capital. They attacked first in the vicinity of the State of France in Saint-Denis, where a friendly match between the French and German soccer teams was being played. They also fired Kalashnikovs at customers on several Parisian terraces and at the Bataclan concert hall, where the Californian band Eagles of Death Metal was performing. In the Bataclan alone, 90 people died.
The attacks, carefully prepared in Belgium and France and piloted from Syria, were claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group. Of the nine terrorists who were directly involved, eight are dead. They died when their explosive belts exploded or were shot down by the French Police.
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