Paris attacks survivors hope for justice as France’s biggest criminal trial in history begins
Survivors and relatives of those who lost their lives during the terrorists attacks in Paris in November 2015 are hoping for justice as France’s biggest criminal trial in history begins.
Members of an IS cell armed with assault weapons and explosive vests targeted a football stadium, bars and cafes and the Bataclan music venue, killing 130 people.
Olivier Laplaud and his wife were in the Bataclan that night enjoying themselves amongst a crowd of 1,500 people. But in an instant he told us things changed.
Mr Laplaud and his wife managed to crawl to a dressing room where they hid along with dozens of others listening to what he calls “the massacre” outside
He said: “We were dancing on the balcony and shouting and laughing and singing. It was really a good mood.”
But then he says: “We heard a very loud noise that was covering the entire music. And it was really loud. I am a musician and I play the guitar and so my first thought was that the speaker has just broken.”
Mr Laplaud says it was his wife who realised the worst. He explains: “My wife, whose father used to work as a policeman, identified a weapon sound. And she grabbed me by the hand to hide. I just saw over the balcony some flames from what I identified as guns and the people in the area in front of the stage had just tried to escape and some were already shot.”
The couple managed to crawl to a dressing room where they hid along with dozens of others listening to what Mr Laplaud calls “the massacre” outside.
The wait for help was long – it was more than two hours before the police entered. But the sound the couple heard as they did so terrified them more than ever.
Mr Laplaud says: “The first policemen entered the Bataclan and shot the first terrorist who was on the stage and his belt exploded. And the blast was very, very loud, it made all our room shake. And I was just thinking they not only have weapons but they have grenades or whatever and the venue could explode, could burn, and we are trapped in that case.”
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A survivor reflects on France’s terror trial
Mr Laplaud says the start of the trial is an important moment for survivors and the victims’ families. But it will also stir strong and painful memories.
The worst for him are those after the police came to rescue them and he had to walk through the carnage of the Bataclan.
He says: “Still now I have the images of the corpses next to my feet. The policemen told us to close our eyes and to just follow the voices of the other policemen but as I was hitting something on the floor or slipping on something, I just had to look at what I was doing and I saw bodies and people shot and heard people moaning in the pits. And still today I see them and I hear them.”
Mr Laplaud will be amongst so many who will have to re-live what they experienced or listen to what happened to their loved ones, on 13 November 2015. Twenty people will go on trial for the attacks which sent France into a state of emergency.
Six of the accused will be tried in absentia, with five believed to have likely died in Syria.
Some 130 people died and hundreds more were injured in the attacks. Pic: AP
Victims and families are hoping for justice but the shock and pain at what happened on that Friday night six years ago was compounded in the days and weeks that followed by the revelation that most of those believed to have been involved in the attacks had either French or Belgian nationality.
With this trial, France is confronting home-grown terrorism.
Central to the hearing will be French citizen Salah Abdeslam who prosecutors say is the sole survivor of the IS terrorists who killed and maimed on a horrendous scale in Paris.
He allegedly ditched his explosive vest and it would be five months before he was arrested in Brussels.
His childhood friend Mohamed Abrini – who is believed to have driven Abdeslam away from Paris – was later caught on camera during the attacks on Brussels airport and subways.
Police fired more than 5,000 rounds during a raid in Saint-Denis, in Paris. Pic: AP
Another friend, Abdelhamid Abaaoud – said to be the mastermind of the cell – was killed in a raid on an apartment block in the St Denis area of Paris five days after the attacks.
Marc Hecker, a terrorism expert, says France has to examine the reasons why young men become radicalised
Marc Hecker who is a terrorism expert and director of research at the French Institute for International Relations, tells us: “Actually, homegrown terrorism has become the norm over the past 20 years. And that’s not actually the main surprise here.
“The main characteristics of this trial are obviously the scale of the attack but also the fact that these young people, being born and raised in France, travelled to Syria and then got a real, almost professional paramilitary training and then were able to come back to Europe and perpetrate those very deadly attacks.”
He says France has to examine the reasons why young men become radicalised. It has to be addressed because the numbers are growing.
He said: “We have a database in France of radicalised individuals that was created in 2015. And actually it started growing and growing. And now there are approximately 23,000 individuals in this database.
“And amongst these 23,000, you have 8,000 individuals who are actively surveilled and monitored by the intelligence agency. That’s a lot. You cannot have a policeman behind each of these individuals.”
Armed French police forces are seen near the Paris courthouse on the Ile de la Cite ahead of the opening of the trial
The trial will be held in a specially created high-security courtroom inside the former Palace of Justice in Paris. Testimony from 1,800 victims and families will be heard during what is expected to be a nine-month case.
Salah Abdeslam is the only defendant facing murder charges. Most are accused of facilitating terrorism, providing money, transport, weapons and explosives.
During previous court appearances Abdeslam has refused to speak or co-operate with prosecutors. Few have high expectations he will behave differently this time.
Police raided the Bataclan theatre in the early hours- of 14 November
And that, Olivier Laplaud says, will be difficult for victims and the loved ones of those who died.
“Silence is a provocation” he says, adding there are many things he would like to know including why Abdeslam took his explosive belt off.
“But I don’t expect much from him,” he adds.
World
Jair Bolsonaro: Brazilian Supreme Court judges vote to convict ex-president of attempting a coup
The majority of a panel of Brazilian Supreme Court judges have voted to convict the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro of attempting a coup after his 2022 election defeat.
The far-right politician, who ruled Brazil between 2019 and 2022, was found guilty on five counts by three members of a five-justice panel.
Just one of the five judges has acquitted Bolsonaro and when the final one has voted, the panel will decide on the former president’s sentence – which could amount to decades in prison.
The five counts were trying to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, being implicated in violence, and posing a serious threat to the state’s assets and listed heritage.
Pic: AP
The 70-year-old, who has denied any wrongdoing, is currently under house arrest at his home in Brasilia.
His lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict.
The ruling will deepen political divisions in Brazil and is also likely to prompt a backlash from the United States government.
Bolsonaro ally Donald Trump has already called the case a “witch hunt”, slapped Brazil with tariff hikes and revoked US visas for most members of Brazil’s high court.
Bolsonaro is the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup.
He has not attended the court proceedings, and on Thursday he was seen at his garage at his property, but did not talk to the media.
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Justice Carmen Lucia. Pic: AP
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, said on Tuesday that Bolsonaro was the leader of a coup plot and of a criminal organisation, and voted in favour of convicting him. Justices Flavio Dino, Carmen Lucia and Cristiano Zanin sided with Justice Moraes in the trial.
On Wednesday, another justice, Luiz Fux, disagreed and voted to acquit the ex-president of all charges.
Justice Lucia said she was convinced by the evidence the attorney general’s office put forward against Bolsonaro.
She said: “He is the instigator, the leader of an organisation that orchestrated every possible move to maintain or seize power.”
The far-right politician had been previously banned from running for office until 2030 in a different case.
He is expected to choose an heir who is likely to challenge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva next year.
World
Qatari PM says Israel ‘killed any hope’ of releasing hostages as criticism over Doha attack intensifies
Qatar’s prime minister said Israel has “killed any hope” of seeing more hostages returned from Gaza after carrying out an attack targeting Hamas leadership in his country.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani intensified his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Tuesday’s unprecedented strike on Qatar, which killed at least six people.
“I was meeting one of the hostage’s families the morning of the attack,” Sheikh Mohammed told CNN in an interview aired late Wednesday.
“They are counting on this [ceasefire] mediation, they have no other hope for that.”
Sheikh Mohammed added that he thought Netanyahu had “just killed any hope for those hostages”.
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Ceasefire talks left in ‘tatters’
A total of 48 Israeli hostages captured during Hamas’ 7 October attacks on southern Israel have not been returned home.
With its attack in Qatar, Israel had sought to kill the political leaders of the Islamist group Hamas.
Hamas has said its top leaders survived the airstrike, but five members were killed, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al Hayya.
The Israeli military operation in Doha has been widely condemned internationally and was particularly sensitive as Qatar has been mediating negotiations to bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.
US President Donald Trump reportedly held a heated phone call with Mr Netanyahu after the attack, telling him his decision to target Hamas leadership in Qatar was not wise, according to The Wall Street Journal.
There has been no immediate acknowledgement of the remarks from Mr Netanyahu, however, he’s continued to defend the strikes and threatened further action against Qatar.
“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice,” Mr Netanyahu said. “Because if you don’t, we will.”
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Trump has ‘heated call’ with Netanyahu over Qatar strike
A senior figure in the Qatari government, Dr Majed Al-Ansari, was the one to announce to the world on X that America’s call to alert them to the attack came 10 minutes after the first explosion sounded in Doha.
Dr Al-Ansari, who serves as Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, recounted the moment of the attack to Sky News’ correspondent Sally Lockwood.
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“I was coming home to my family and the moment I stepped out of the car I started hearing the loud noises that can only be compared to bombs,” he said.
“Being a diplomat and working for the foreign ministry throughout the mediation that we have conducted, I immediately knew that that meant that something terrible has happened.
“I can’t tell you enough how as a father living here in Qatar, that moment was a moment of reckoning for me and for all my countrymen and people who reside here in Qatar, where our lives were at risk because of the narcissistic and personal ambitions of a political operator who wants to throw the whole region into chaos.”
Donald Trump had a heated phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his military targeted Hamas inside Qatar, according to a report.
The American president told Mr Netanyahu on Tuesday that the decision to strike inside the US ally’s territory was not wise, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior administration officials.
The Israeli prime minister responded by saying he had a brief window to launch the airstrike and took the opportunity, according to the newspaper.
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Anger over Israeli strikes on Qatar
A second call between the two leaders later that day was cordial, with Mr Trump asking Mr Netanyahu if the attack had been successful, the publication added.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of the Islamist group Hamas with the attack in the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday.
Hamas has said its top leaders survived the airstrike, but five members were killed, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al Hayya.
The Israeli military operation in Doha has been widely condemned internationally and was particularly sensitive as Qatar has been hosting and mediating in negotiations which are trying to bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.
On Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu warned Qatar to either expel Hamas officials or “bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will”.
Qatar has hit back at him, saying his comments about the Gulf nation hosting a Hamas office were “reckless”.
Donald Trump with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House earlier this year. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, has said that if Israel failed to kill Hamas leaders on Tuesday, it would succeed next time.
“We have put terrorists on notice, wherever they may be… we’re going to pursue them, and we’re going to destroy those who will destroy us,” he said.
The airstrike took place shortly after Hamas claimed responsibility for Monday’s shooting at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem that killed six people.
Read more:
Analysis: Israel has crossed a huge diplomatic red line
In another development, Sir Keir Starmer has had talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Downing Street, with Mr Herzog saying they argued during a “tough meeting”.
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PM meets Israeli president
PM condemns Israeli action
The prime minister has condemned the Israeli attack in Qatar, and raised the matter with the president, saying it was “completely unacceptable”.
“He said the strikes were a flagrant violation of a key partner’s sovereignty and do nothing to secure the peace we all desperately want to see,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
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Israel has been angered by Britain’s plans to join several other Western countries, including France and Canada, in recognising a Palestinian state later this month – unless Israel meets conditions including a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Things were said that were tough and strong, and clearly we can argue, because when allies meet, they can argue. We are both democracies,” Mr Herzog said at an event at Chatham House.
He also proposed offering a “fact-finding mission” to Israel, “sitting with us and studying the situation in Gaza on the humanitarian level”.
“Because we have full answers, and we are fully transparent,” he said.
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