The special tribunal for terrorism also convicted 19 other men involved in the attack on the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and the national stadium, which killed 130 people and injured hundreds, some of them permanently mutilated. It also led to an intensification of French military action against extremists abroad and a permanent change in France’s security stance at home. The families of the survivors and victims came out of the crowded courtroom dizzy or exhausted after a torturous nine-month trial that was crucial to their quest for justice and closure. The main suspect Salah Abdeslam was found guilty of murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist operation. The court found that his vest with explosives was malfunctioning, rejecting his argument that he left the vest because he decided not to continue with the part of the attack on the night of November 13, 2015. The other nine perpetrators were either blown up or killed by police that night. Abdeslam, a 32-year-old Belgian, was sentenced to France’s harshest sentence. Life imprisonment without parole has been imposed only four times in the country – for crimes related to rape and murder of minors. Neither he nor his lawyer spoke publicly after the verdict. Of the other defendants, 18 were convicted of various terrorism-related offenses and one was convicted of a lesser charge of fraud. Some were sentenced to life in prison. others were released after being sentenced to probation. They have 10 days to appeal. The penalties were generally expected and those present expressed little surprise. mainly, a little relief. “I hope to be able to put the word ‘victim’ in the past,” said Bataklan survivor Arthur Denouveaux. “When things like this happen, there is no way to fix it. That is why you have justice, “he said,” even though “justice cannot do everything.” During the trial, Abdeslam initially declared his radicalism, but later appeared to be evolving, weeping, apologizing to the victims and begging the judges to forgive his “mistakes”. For months, the packed main hall and 12 overflow rooms in the 13th-century Palace of Justice heard terrifying testimonies from the victims, along with Abdeslam’s testimony. The other defendants were heavily accused of assisting in logistics or transportation. At least one is accused of being directly involved in the deadly March 2016 attacks in Brussels, which were also carried out by the Islamic State organization. The trial was an opportunity for survivors and loved ones to recount the deep personal horror of that night and to hear the details of countless acts of bravery, humanity and compassion among strangers. They wanted to tell the accused directly that there were irreparable scars, but they were not broken. “I feel like I grew up” thanks to the trial, said David Fritz Geopinger, who was held hostage in Bataklan. “It is important as a victim to hear justice speak.” France changed after the attacks: Authorities declared a state of emergency and armed officers are now constantly patrolling public spaces. The violence sparked outrage among French and Europeans, as most of the perpetrators were born and raised in France or Belgium. And they transformed forever the lives of all those who suffered losses or martyred. Presiding Judge Jean-Louis Peries said at the beginning of the trial that he belonged to the “international and national events of this century. France came out of the state of emergency in 2017, after incorporating many of the toughest measures into the law. Fourteen of the accused were in court, including Abdeslam. All but one of the six men convicted in absentia are believed to have been killed in Syria or Iraq. the other is in prison in Turkey. Most of the suspects were accused of helping to create false identities, transporting the perpetrators back to Europe from Syria or providing them with money, telephones, explosives or weapons. Abdeslam was the only defendant to stand trial on several counts of murder and kidnapping as a member of a terrorist organization. “Not everyone is a jihadist, but everyone you judge has agreed to join a terrorist group, either out of conviction, cowardice or greed,” prosecutor Nicolas Braconei told the court in a closing hearing this month. Some defendants said innocent civilians had been targeted by France’s policies in the Middle East and hundreds of civilian deaths in Western airstrikes in Islamic State-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq. During his deposition, former President Francois Hollande denied allegations that his government was to blame. The attackers in Paris did not shoot, kill, mutilate or injure civilians because of religion, he said, but “fanaticism and barbarism.” The night of the attack was a peaceful Friday night, with the city’s bars and restaurants full. At the Bataclan concert hall, the American band Eagles of Death Metal was playing in a packed hall. At the national stadium, a football match between France and Germany had just begun, in which then-President Hollande and then-Chancellor Angela Merkel took part. The sound of the first suicide bombing at 9:16 p.m. barely passed over the noise of the stadium crowd. The second came four minutes later. A group of gunmen opened fire on several bars and restaurants in another part of Paris. The worst was to follow. At 9:47 p.m., three more gunmen stormed Bataclan, firing indiscriminately. Ninety people died within minutes. Hundreds were held hostage – some seriously injured – for hours before Hollande ordered the invasion. During the final hearing Monday, Abdeslam’s lawyer, Olivia Ronen, told a panel of judges that her client should not be convicted of murder because he was the only perpetrator who did not detonate explosives to kill others. that night. She stressed during the trial that “she does not provide legitimacy to the attacks” defending her client in court. Abdeslam apologized to the victims during his last court appearance on Monday, saying that listening to the victims’ accounts of “so much pain” changed him, he said. Georges Salines, who lost his daughter Lola in Bataclan, felt that Abdeslam’s regrets were insincere. “I do not think it is possible to forgive him,” he said. But for Salines, life without suspension goes a long way. “I do not like the idea of deciding in advance that there is no hope,” he said. “I think it’s important to keep hope for any man.”
Surk reported from Nice, France. Associated Press authors Alex Turnbull, Oleg Cetinic and Masha Macpherson in Paris contributed to this report.
