At the trial of the November 13 attacks, four hours to retrace four years of a “total investigation” – lemonde.fr

The journey at the end of the night of November 13, 2015 that this trial will be had really started on Friday, September 10, on the third day of the hearing. After the appeal, in opening, of the civil parties and the witnesses, the magistrates of the special Assize Court of Paris had shared the presentation of the investigation report, eight hours of tedious reading marked by the first sobs in the audience, when, at the start of his presentation, the president of the court, Jean-Louis Peries, had listed the names, first names, ages of the victims, scene of attack by scene of attack. It had taken him nearly six minutes – an eternity – to list the 90 deaths of the Bataclan, in the silence of the knotted throats.

Monday, September 13, this trial has only four days, and Salah Abdeslam is already finding the time long: “When is it that we will have the floor? “, he asks when no one has given it to him. ” Later “, answers the president, who would like for the moment to listen to the forty-something in a strict suit and tie at the bar, the very first witness cited at the hearing, a high-ranking officer of the anti-terrorism sub-directorate (SDAT) of the judicial police in post from 2015 to 2019, came to deposit with face uncovered but under an anonymous identity: “SDAT 99”.

“SDAT 99” is there to tell four years of work by French investigators, and it takes him less than a quarter of an hour, while he begins the story of the fatal evening with the explosions at the Stade de France, to be loudly interrupted by Salah Abdeslam: “Are you tired of hearing that, it will not relieve the civil party!” We’ve been hearing that for a week!

– Well you will hear it again », retorts President Peries, who has so far managed to contain with phlegm and firmness the sporadic agitation of the accused number 1.

The incident is closed, the floor is returned to the imperturbable witness who then details the architecture of a “Total investigation” allowing to identify “All the authors, their accomplices and the sponsor” of “The most complex operation carried out by the Islamic State outside its borders”. Four hours without notes and without a break – a few sips of water from time to time – to sum up four years of investigations, “542 procedural volumes”, the work of “1,000 French investigators”, developments “In 25 countries”, “2,259 hearings of witnesses” : the long time of the investigation to lead to this trial, “The response of justice and the rule of law” in the face of terrorism.

You have 65.65% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.