Beginning of the requisitions in the trial of the attacks of November 13

Published on: 08/06/2022 – 15:01 The Advocates General begin their indictment, Wednesday, at the trial of the attacks of November 13, in Paris. During this phase of the hearing, one of the last, the representatives of the prosecution request a sentence against the accused, or their acquittal. This is the epilogue of an extraordinary trial. Representatives of the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office (Pnat) began to take their requisitions, Wednesday June 8 in Paris, at the trial of November 13, six and a half years after a night of “dread” and “terror” which made 130 dead and traumatized the country. The indictment, spread over three days, will end on Friday with the sentences claimed against Salah Abdeslam and his 19 co-defendants. Twelve of them face life imprisonment. “What will we remember from this hearing? What images? before the special assize court. “Your verdict, of course. The names of the disappeared last September. The accounts of the victims, finally, incontestably the cruelty of the terrorists who shoot piecemeal and finish off certain people with delight”, has she continued. This extraordinary trial in terms of its length, its more than 2,500 civil parties and its emotional charge, is coming to an end, more than six and a half years after the worst attacks ever perpetrated on French soil. In turn and for three days, the representatives of the Pnat will stand up to demonstrate what, according to them, are the responsibilities of each of the accused tried since September 8. Camille Hennetier, Nicolas Braconnay and Nicolas Le Bris will try to piece together the puzzle of a titanic file, first in a general way, then by developing the case of each of the 20 defendants – six of them, including five senior executives of the Islamic State organization presumed dead in Syria, are judged in their absence. It is only Friday that they will claim sentences against them. “I ask you to hate me in moderation” Twelve face life imprisonment, including Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the commandos who sowed the died at the Stade de France, on the Parisian terraces and in the Bataclan concert hall. Mutic during the investigation, the 32-year-old Frenchman answered questions during the trial, but his “truth” struggled to convince the prosecution . It was “out of humanity” and not “out of cowardice”, he explained, that he himself did not kill, renouncing to activate his explosive belt in a bar in the 18th arrondissement. as an “Islamic State fighter” at the start of the trial finally shed tears in his last speech a few months later. “I ask you to hate me in moderation,” he begged the survivors and relatives of the victims, asking for their “pardon”. confronted Salah Abdeslam with his contradictions during his interrogations. “Strange”, “incongruous”, considered the magistrates of the Pnat, that the main accused was recruited by the jihadist cell only a few days before the attacks, as he supported him. Or that he could not identify the bar he was supposed to target – invisible in the documents listing the “targets” discovered in a computer of the jihadist cell. Finally, hard to believe, while the commandos of the Stade de France, terraces and the Bataclan were all made up of three men, whom Salah Abdeslam operates “all alone”, he who, unlike the others, had never gone to train in Syria. an extremely rare sanction which makes any adjustment of sentence very difficult – the Advocates General will request against Mohamed Abrini, “the man in the hat” of the Brussels attacks who was also “planned” for November 13, and the “good friends” who helped Salah Abdeslam during his run. Some, like the accused Farid Kharkhach, who made false papers “without knowing” that they were intended for the jihadist cell, or Yassine Atar, who swears not to be linked to the do ssier that because he is the brother of the sponsor of the attacks Osama Atar, hope that the debates have changed the opinion of the prosecution. There should be no surprises in the requisitions, the file having evolved little during the more than 130 days of hearing. These requisitions follow the pleadings of the civil parties, completed Tuesday evening. For two weeks, the lawyers returned to this night of horror and chaos, these scenes of war in front of the Stade de France or in full of Paris which have left indelible wounds. After the requisitions, the floor will be given to the defense from June 13. The verdict is expected on June 29. With AFP