DInside the historic courthouse on the Seine River in Paris, builders are finishing work on an extraordinary architectural structure described as a cross between a highly secure bunker and a modern church.
The French Ministry of Justice chose smooth light-colored wood and white lighting to create a “sense of calm”, in sharp contrast to the terrible incident that will be reviewed there.This temporary agency will host the largest criminal trial in French history next week, when 20 men will be charged with planning, assisting and executing Paris terrorist attack in November 2015 In stadiums, bars and restaurants, and Bataclan concert hall.
The trial will last for 9 months, and witnesses such as former President François Hollande will appear in court. This is a solution to the trauma to individuals and the country caused by a coordinated attack that killed 130 people and injured more than 490 people. The key step. But it is not clear whether the key defendant will break the silence on the massacre that Hollande described as an “act of war.”
The attack claimed by the Islamic State began at around 9pm on Friday, November 13, 2015, when a suicide bomber detonated himself after failing to enter the stadium. FranceHollande is one of 80,000 people watching the French-German football match at the stadium. After the explosion, there were car shootings and suicide bombings in cafes and restaurants in Paris, as well as the attack on Bataclan during a rock concert organized by the Eagles of Death Metal. The attack resulted in 90 deaths.
The key person in the trial is Salah Abdulram, Believed to be the last survivor of the cell of 10 men who attacked the city, most of whom committed suicide or were killed by the police.
31-year-old Abdeslam is a French citizen born in Brussels. He is said to be at the core of a large-scale logistics operation that witnessed the return of jihadists from Syria to Europe via immigration routes. It is believed that he escorted three bombers that blew up at the Stade de France. He was suspected of planning to carry out his own suicide attack in the 18th arrondissement of Paris and then withdrew. His brother blew himself up in a Paris bar during the attack and died. After the attack, Abdeslam hid in southern Paris and called his contact in Brussels at 5:30 in the morning to pick him up. After hunting, he was arrested in an apartment in Brussels four months later.A few days after his arrest, the alleged suicide bomber was part of the same cell Brussels airport and subway were attacked, Resulting in 32 deaths and 270 injuries.
Also on trial in Paris is the 36-year-old Mohamed Abrini, who was Abdul Slam’s childhood friend who was believed to have traveled to the Paris area with the attacker, and later with two Brussels airport bombers. Captured by CCTV.
A total of 20 suspects were accused of providing various planning and logistical support. Six people will be tried in their absence: five are presumed to have died in Iraq or Syria, and one is in a Turkish prison.
Arthur Dénouveaux is the chairman of the survivor group Life for Paris. He is a rock fan. He was watching Bataclan’s performance when the attackers opened fire. He managed to escape and led the band members to run on the streets of Paris, handing them 50 euros and getting them in a taxi. “I was not by my side at all that night,” he said.
As part of the close community of Batakland survivors, Denovo will speak in court. “The first level we are talking about is the horror, trauma, and destruction of terrorism on life and the people around you. Second, we can bluntly prove that terrorism is a dead end. It does not work. It does not work. It ruins life and doesn’t help any real political project. It’s just absolute nihilism, no matter how you pretend it. Finally, if we can deliver all this information, this in itself proves resilience.”
He said that survivors want to end the myths surrounding the attack and establish facts, rather than seeing the incident being chosen by politics or prejudice. “For me, the truth is: I was in Batakland and I was shot. But in France, it also became a question of immigrants and terrorists who can bring immigrants into the country. When Donald Trump was in When Bataclan was mentioned in one of his events, it has become a topic of foreign policy, and it has become an issue of Islam in France. It has gone beyond the facts… Around November 13, everything was exaggerated. Because this is such an extreme event.”
British chef Michael O’Connor was one of many foreign survivors who returned to Paris to speak in court. He said: “This provides us with the best opportunity to turn off something.” He wants to better understand the question of “why and how happened globally”, but there are also more personal questions about the incident itself. “When I came out of Batakland, I didn’t even know how long I was there,” he said.
Thomas Ricard, a lawyer for 21 Batakland survivors from the United Kingdom and Ireland, said that foreign survivors face specific challenges. “Some people left Paris the next morning. If you return to a foreign city on a plane or train at 6 o’clock in the morning, there is still some distance from the collective grief in Paris. For those who live far away Said, there is a feeling: Is this true? Has it happened? This disconnect may have an impact on accepting an attack. Some people have no obvious physical injuries, but they have seen tragic war scenes. Trauma and sadness. The process is very real.”
Matthew Chiretz, who will represent British and Irish survivors in court, said: “Among survivors, people are looking for the truth. Recovering from pain and grief is a long-term collective work. But one thing is clear, too. We may not get all the answers in this experiment.”
After five years of investigation, the trial did not force an investigation into whether the French government had security or intelligence errors.
Patricia Correia’s daughter, Précilia, was killed in Bataclan with her partner and was one of the co-founders of the 13onze15 family and survivor organization. She said: “This trial is not only for justice, but also to preserve the memory of what happened. It needs to be written down—almost carved in stone—and passed on to future generations.”
