Paris — Twenty men on Wednesday, the worst Muslim terrorist attack in French history, killing 130 people and injuring more than 500 in and around Paris, the spirit of the nation.
Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the team of Islamic state militants who closed the record 10-month trial and carried out the attack, was convicted by a committee of judges on all charges against him for life. I was sentenced to imprisonment. For 30 years of parole.
Other defendants accused of intending to participate in the attack or providing the attackers with varying degrees of logistical support were guilty of almost all charges against them, ranging from two years to life imprisonment. Was said. In some cases, part of that time was interrupted.
Events of that era have deeply hurt France and continue to form a national debate about France’s identity, the location of Muslims in countries that identify themselves as secular, and the balance between individual freedom and collective security. ..
Hundreds of people testified in a huge Parisian court specially built to accommodate more than 500 people — attorneys, survivors, families of victims, defendants, experts, and the French president at the time of the attack. Even the first former French lord of Francois Hollande. It was also one of the few trials in France filmed for historical research purposes and was the first trial in which plaintiffs could track live broadcasts on internet radio.
The court found 19 defendants guilty of all charges against them, including not only being accomplices to murder and hostages, but also participating in terrorist plots. One defendant was convicted of less than being involved in a criminal conspiracy.
The ruling released on Wednesday could still be appealed, and the court did not get all the answers it wanted from the defendants, some of which remained largely silent.
Prosecutors could not determine where most of the weapons used in the attack were obtained, or whether the Islamic State planned other simultaneous attacks at Paris and Amsterdam airports. Victims did not always get the clarity they wanted about what motivated the attackers and how the plot was masterminded.
However, the trials were orderly, with few fanfares, few cases, and minimal political spectacle. Even if the pandemic raged around the world, the war broke out in Europe, and France held a presidential election, it became a milestone in the judiciary every day.
The trial also acted as a catharsis for the families of some survivors and victims, many of them in the fall five weeks on the devastating physical and psychological aftermath of attacks and the difficult path to recovery. I testified while I was full of emotions. The two survivors of the attack committed suicide in the years that followed.
The verdict “does not heal wounds, visible or invisible, does not bring the dead back to life, but at least guarantees them that justice and law have the last word here. We could, “said the prosecutor earlier this month.
In the night raid on November 13, 2015, 10 Islamic State militants shot a series of shots at almost the same time, outside the French national football stadium, at the Batakuran Concert Hall, a central cafe and restaurant terrace. And carried out a suicide bombing terrorism. Paris.
The perpetrators were primarily French citizens, with carefully organized plans to travel to the territory of Syria, which is dominated by Islamic State for military training, and then Europe, where attacks were planned primarily in Belgium. I returned to.
It was estimated that only 14 of the 20 defendants appeared in court and the other 6 were missing or died. As the only surviving attacker on the dock, 32-year-old Abdeslam was the central figure, perhaps the most elusive.
Initially, little was expected of Mr. Abdeslam, a French citizen of Moroccan ancestry who lived in Belgium and was arrested during a four-month escape in Mohrenbeek near Brussels. He refused to work with investigators and judges for several years leading up to the trial, and on the first day of the proceedings, he rebelliously told the court that he was an “Islamic State fighter.”
Abdeslam eventually became open about his involvement in the attack and sought forgiveness from the victims, but he never abandoned the Islamic State’s ideology, and the attack only took place in response to the French airstrikes in Syria. He repeatedly insisted that he was.
He admitted that he had dropped a suicide bomber outside a soccer stadium in the northern suburbs of the capital. But he said he was caught up in a plot just two days ago and changed his mind when he arrived at the bar where he was supposed to blow himself up.
“I made a mistake,” Abdeslam told the court on the last day of the hearing on Monday. “But I’m not a murderer, I’m not a murderer.”
The prosecutor was not upset. They said evidence to Mr Abdeslam, who drove some of the attackers and their accomplices across Europe, showed that he was an integral part of the plot. They claimed that he could not carry out the attack because his suicide belt was dysfunctional, pointing to a letter written while he was running and that he wanted to carry out the attack. Suggested.
Only Mr. Abdeslam was directly accused of murder, attempted murder, and hostage taking. Bataclan attackers detained hostages for several hours in a concert hall.
Other defendants planned to participate in the attack, rented hideouts to hide weapons and explosives, drove members of the cell across national borders, and secured cash and counterfeit documents. Was charged with helping the attacker. Some defendants were accused of strengthening Islamic extremists who knew the attack was coming.Others, such as some of Abdeslam’s childhood friends, were suspected of helping the plotter without completely knowing what was planned.
Most of the lawyers in the younger generation, who were hurt by a series of terrorist attacks in France, were careful not to defend the client’s cause. Instead, they avoid using a wide range of brushes in determining defendants with very different degrees of involvement in the plot, and the law they saw was endangered by the ever-expanding anti-terrorism law. I urged the court to support the principle.
“In criminal trials, there are things that are more important than clients,” said one of the lawyers, Margaux Durand-Poincloux. “It’s democracy.”