The French prosecutor’s office requested life imprisonment for four of the main accused of the jihadist attacks that on November 13, 2015 killed 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis. Among them is Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the commandos that carried out the attack. With the request made by the Prosecutor’s Office, the trial – which began nine months ago – is drawing to a close. The verdict will be June 29.
After six and a half years since the worst attacks perpetrated in Paris and its periphery since World War II, the macro-trial against the accused is nearing its end.
Due to the “immense seriousness of the facts” the Prosecutor’s Office requested this Friday, June 10, life imprisonment without parole at the end of the so-called “security period” for Salah Abdeslam, the 32-year-old French naturalized Belgian of Moroccan origin who on November 13 2015 bloodied the terraces of bars in Paris and the Bataclan concert hall, causing the death of 130 people and leaving 350 injured.
Camille Hennetier, one of the representatives of the Public Ministry pointed out that “despite his words, his tears, Salah Abdeslam remained faithful to his ideology to the end” and never expressed “the slightest remorse”, explained Hennetier who recognized that the verdict of this trial “will not heal the wounds or bring the dead back to life, but it will assure the victims that justice and the law have the last word”.
The prosecutors of the accusation consider that Abdeslam was a co-author of the attacks and not a mere accomplice. “I want to offer my condolences and apologize to all the victims,” Abdeslam said through tears on the last day of interrogation in mid-April. “I only ask you today to hate me in moderation” and “forgive me,” he said.
Abdeslam was arrested in Belgium on March 18, 2016, four days before the jihadist attacks that left 32 dead and 340 injured in the Brussels metro and airport, at a time when Europe was facing a series of attacks and while In parallel, thousands of Syrians arrived on the continent fleeing the war.
After the allegations presented by the Prosecutor’s Office this Friday, the turn will be for the defense from Monday June 13 and on the 29th of this month the verdict on this attack will be known, classified as unusual due to its duration, its more of 2,500 civil parties, its emotional burden and the commotion it generated in France and in the world.
The others for whom the Prosecutor’s Office also asks for life imprisonment
Life imprisonment – with a mandatory period of 22 years – was also requested for Mohamed Abrini, known as the “man in the hat” for the images captured by security cameras during the March 2016 Brussels attacks.
Abrini, 36 years old and an accomplice in the organization, would have given up detonating his explosives on the night of November 13, 2015 and returned to Belgium.
Additionally, the National Antiterrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) requested life imprisonment for two former senior officials of the self-proclaimed Islamic State who are presumed dead fighting in the Islamist ranks in Syria and Iraq. Another ten of alleged involved face requests for a sentence of between 5 and 30 years in prison.
Now the different defenses of the 20 defendants will begin next Monday to present their final arguments and their requests for punishment.
This sentence of life imprisonment, the most severe in the Penal Code, makes the possibility of obtaining an adjustment of the sentence minimal. On very few occasions has it been decreed since its establishment in 1994, for those convicted of killing children, after raping or torturing them.
“On advance (…), the advocates of the defense vont ramer”, estimates Dominique Kielemoes, partie civile de l’association 13onze15 pic.twitter.com/CaybWX0xDK
— Aude Abback-Mazoué (@audemazoue) June 10, 2022
Abdeslam “without remorse”
“I didn’t kill anyone directly. I may have killed indirectly,” Abdeslam said in April, referring to the three suicide bombers he brought to the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, one of the scenes of the bloody attacks.
Nicolas Le Bris, another of the three prosecutors who intervened this Friday, replied to those statements by Abdeslam made two months ago: “Let’s not be naive, he has spoken, but he has not told us anything about tonight, he has not clarified anything for us regarding to the facts,” he stressed.
Le Bris is convinced that Abdeslam’s intention was to detonate the explosives belt he was wearing on his body and he abandoned the device because it did not work. Abdeslam had said that he saved lives by not activating his belt in a bar, something that the terrorist claimed to have decided “for humanity”.
Starting on Wednesday of this week, the three representatives of the Pnat, Hennetier, Le Bris and Nicolas Braconnay, took turns for almost fifteen hours in a long story in three voices, analyzing the details of the logistics of the attacks, from the genesis of the deadly motivations to the final attacks.
“Those who have committed these crimes are nothing more than vulgar terrorists, criminals,” Le Bris added this Friday as he recounted the attacks outside the Stade de France, on the Parisian terraces and at the Bataclan.
Some 397 accounts of suffering
Were these places chosen randomly? Lawyer Le Bris doubts it. They look for “crowded terraces” that are located on street corners that offer “a wide angle of fire” and several “escape routes.”
France 24 in French collects on its website what Le Bris said this Friday. “All the people who were there at the time of the jihadists’ arrival should be considered hostages of the latter.”
For Sarah, dont le frère a été tué au Carillon, “les combs des réquisitions sont justifiées mais pas assez fortes à l’encontre certains accusés.” pic.twitter.com/J1CNVVKVfw
— Aude Abback-Mazoué (@audemazoue) June 10, 2022
Taking up the testimonies of “suffering” of the victims, the lawyer confesses “having taken in full face” the 397 stories of victims who have come to testify, mixing survivors and relatives of the deceased. ” Before hearing these stories, my colleagues and I were not aware of all these pains.” In short, “shattered lives”.
This macro-trial, which began in September 2021, is nearing the end of its sessions. This Friday was number 137.
With AFP, EFE and France 24 in French
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