All the accused in the trial of the November 13 attacks were back in the box on Wednesday on the occasion of the start of the “individual pleadings“lawyers for the civil parties, the last stage of this”extraordinary trial“before the prosecution’s indictment scheduled for next week.
On Tuesday, nine of the eleven detained defendants refused to appear in court by “solidarity“with one of their own, Pakistani Muhammad Usman,”worried” of his state of health, thus forcing the lawyers to plead in front of an almost empty box.
It is in a peaceful atmosphere, but still as emotionally trying, that a little more than fifteen lawyers for survivors and mourners of the attacks of November 13, 2015 succeeded each other on Wednesday at the helm of the court of special meetings in Paris to defend their clients.
The names of Anne-Laure Arruebo, murdered on the terrace of La Belle Equipe at the age of 36, journalist Guillaume Barreau-Decherf, killed at Bataclan at the age of 43, Elodie Breuil, murdered at Bataclan at the age of 23 or Jean-Jacques Amiot, a 68-year-old grandfather, also killed at the Bataclan, resonated, probably for the last time, in “a courtroom unlike any we’ve ever seen“, in the words of lawyer Mathieu Riberolles.
Since the start of the trial, there has been “testimonials to die for, tears and sorrows to die for“summarized the lawyer for the family of Anne-Laure, murdered with her friend Cécile on the terrace of La Belle Equipe. The two women were returning from a sewing class. “To protect herself from Kalashnikov bullets Anne-Laure only had a thimble and some yarn to weave“, recalled Me Riberolles.
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