Relatives of the 86 who died in the 2016 Nice attack attend the trial hoping to “learn the truth” and why “the terrorist was not arrested in time”
Six years after the Nice attack, the time for justice has come. This is what the victims expect from that barbaric attack that occurred on July 14, 2016, which left 86 dead -15 of them children- and more than 400 injured in a massive outrage with a truck on the Paseo de los Ingleses in the well-known tourist town French.
Relatives and victims trust that the trial, which began this Monday in Paris and is scheduled to end on December 16, will help to discover the truth and close, as far as possible, that painful page of their lives. “We have had time to cope” with the tragedy, but “we kept the scar,” she says before starting the session Danielle Lechailler, 73 years old.
“The families, the civil parties, expect a lot from this trial. I hope I can meet your expectations. They hope to know the truth, to know what happened, in what circumstances their relatives died, if there were failures and why the terrorist could not be stopped in time, ”explains Samia Maktouf, a lawyer for some 40 victims of the brutal outrage.
However, the lawyers, relatives and victims are aware that many of the questions that arise will remain unresolved, since the author of the attack, the Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, cannot be tried as he is deceased.
The terrorist was killed by the Police shortly after he charged his 19-tonne truck into the crowd. That night some 25,000 people had come to the Paseo de los Ingleses to see the fireworks with which the celebrations of the French national holiday of July 14 traditionally end. The festive day ended in tragedy. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel deliberately ran over pedestrians he encountered in his path with the truck. The attack was claimed days later by the Islamic State. According to the indictment, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was known to the police for assaulting his wife. The intelligence services did not have him on file as a radicalized individual. However, he “was immersed for several months before in a jihadist-inspired ideological process.”
Seven men and one woman sit in the dock. Three of the defendants – Mohamed Ghraieb, Chokri Chafrou and Ramzi Arefa – are being tried for criminal association for terrorist purposes. The trial will have to determine if they were aware that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was planning an attack and if they helped him prepare it.
organ harvesting
Another four accused, of Albanian nationality, are tried for common crimes related to association of criminals and arms trafficking. One of them, Brahim Tritou, is tried in absentia. He is wanted and captured. He fled France and is believed to have probably been a long-time resident of Tunisia.
“I do not expect much from this trial,” admits Thierry Vimal, whose 12-year-old daughter died in the attack, aware that the absence of the main terrorist makes the task of the court difficult. Vimal trusts, however, that the process will allow the French authorities to obtain answers about the removal of organs from some of the victims during the judicial autopsy, without the knowledge of their relatives.
Two years after burying his daughter Amie, this father discovered by chance that several organs had been removed for research without his consent: “The brain, the heart, the liver and the vocal cords,” says Vimal, who hopes to be able to retrieve the organs one day and have them tested for DNA to be sure they are his daughter’s.
The trial takes place 932 kilometers away from the place where the tragedy occurred: in the court room of the Paris Court. This room was specially built to host a year ago the trial of the terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015, in which 130 people died in Paris and Saint-Denis. The relatives and the victims, who cannot travel to the French capital, will be able to follow the trial remotely, from a broadcast room in the Acropolis Palace in Nice, after the City Council and the Ministry of Justice reached a agreement. The process will be “hard” but facing the accused and “understanding what happened will allow us to rebuild ourselves,” confides Seloua Mensi, who lost her sister in the attack.
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