NICE ATTACK. The trial of the July 14 attack in Nice has been open since September 5. Eight defendants appear before the Special Assize Court of Paris. All have already spoken and distanced themselves from the terrorist.
[Mise à jour le 7 septembre à 14h19] Six years after theNice attack who killed 86 people on the Promenade des Anglais on July 14, 2016, the families of the victims are waiting for answers. The trial, which opened on Monday September 5, 2022, should allow them to move forward in their reconstruction. The driver of the truck is not there, killed the same evening. But the explanations of those who, according to the investigation, played a role in the organization of this macabre enterprise, are eagerly awaited. The eight defendants will not really be questioned until November. But Tuesday, September 6, at the 2e day of the trial, the floor was however given to them. All wanted to distance themselves from the terrorist.
Ramzi Arefathe first to speak, said that Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel “was not [son] friend. I did not know him.” If he admitted having been “intermediary for the weapon”, he assured to have “never been associated with any project.” A weapon, found in the truck, brought by Maksim Celaj, which he acknowledged. “But I did not know the intentions of this person,” he defended himself. At the origin of the supply of this 7.65 caliber automatic pistol, Artan Henajwhich, he said, “did not know[t] nothing” and that he has “no connection with terrorism”, declaring “atten[dre] let the truth be brought to light.” His companion, Enkeledja Zace -the only woman among the accused-, for her part, denied any involvement, whileEndri Elezi just blurted out, sputtering, “carrying something I shouldn’t have.”
During other speeches, Chokri Chafroud admitted that the author of the facts “was a friend”, while saying that he “didn’t[a] not helped.” “I don’t know what he had in mind,” he defended himself. Artan Henajhe too, did not “know[t] nothing of that.” Mohamed Ghraieb, the last to speak, even described the terrorist as “garbage” and “bastard”, claiming to be “a stranger to the facts.” “I had nothing to do with what happened.”
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On Monday September 5, 2022, a little more than six years after the events, it was on this date that the trial for the Nice attack opened. A procedure which was eagerly awaited and which lasts until December 16. Throughout the trial, hearings only take place from Tuesday to Friday.
Of the three months of trial, five weeks are devoted to the testimony of civil parties, relatives of victims or survivors of the terrorist attack. During these weeks children must speak according to Hager Ben Aouissi, mother victim of the attack and founder of the association “A way of children”, invited on BFM Nice Côte d’Azur on August 30. Children do not need to go to the assizes of Paris and can testify from “a broadcast room of the Nice court”. Their stories are broadcast during the hearings. To help children but also all victims or civil parties, specific support is offered thanks to the presence of associations and psychologists, among others. As for the accused, they are questioned from November.
It is far from Nice, a city devastated by the terrorist attack of July 14, 2016, that justice must be done on this tragedy. The trial of the July 14 attack is taking place in Paris, in the salle des pas perdus of the courthouse on the Ile de la Cité, fitted out to be the special assize court of Paris. This courtroom with a capacity of 500 people has already hosted another historic trial, that of the November 13 attacks. Fourteen other rooms where the debates are broadcast will make it possible to accommodate more people, in particular the victims, their families and the civil parties who are or will be making the trip. With these premises, more than 2,000 people can be accommodated and attend the hearings. A significant but necessary capacity in the face of the 865 people and associations who filed civil suits and the more than 2,500 victims of the tragedy which left 86 dead and more than 400 injured.
Not all victims and civil parties made the trip to Paris to participate in the hearings of the Nice attack trial. They can, however, follow the testimonies live thanks to the retransmission of the hearings and the debates in a “dedicated room” assured the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti on July 14, 2022, day of commemoration of the tragedy and tribute to the victims, with Nice-Matin.
The entire trial can be followed by the civil parties who request it on a secure web radio. The device was put in place for the first time during the trial of the November 13 attacks, but this time the retransmission “is [également] accessible from abroad” and provided with a translation. A detail that is very important for this case in which the 86 deceased people were of 19 different nationalities.
They are eight defendants to be sent back to the special assize court of Paris but the author of the terrorist attack is absent. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian and the driver of the truck and responsible for the terrorist attack, was shot dead by the security forces on the evening of the July 14, 2016 attack. identified eight people who had a role in the preparation of the attack. They are seven men and one woman, all members of the killer’s entourage or intermediaries involved in the arms trade from which Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel obtained his supplies.
Of these eight people, three are appearing for “criminal terrorist association”: Chokri Chafroud, Ramzi Arefa and Mohamed Ghraieb. They were first prosecuted for “complicity” but the investigation failed to prove that they were aware of the terrorist attack and the charge was ultimately dismissed. However, they remain suspected of having “contributed to the preparation of this passage to the criminal act” when they were “fully aware” of the adherence of the assailant “to the ideology of armed jihad”. The first two attend the trial of the Nice attack from the dock with a third man Artan Henaj who is detained because he was convicted in another case. Ramzi Arefa is the only accused to incur life imprisonment because he is a repeat offender after a conviction in another case unrelated to terrorism. Chokri Chafroud risks him twenty of criminal imprisonment.
The other five defendants Artan Henaj, Enkeledja Zace, Maksim Celaj, Endri Elezi and Brahim Tritrou are tried for common law offenses and mainly suspected of being part of an arms trafficking network and of having supplied weapons to Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel. Brahim Tritou, on the run since July 9, 2020 in Tunisia and a priori detained in the country, is not present at the trial
The Nice attack is still in the minds of all those present during the attack or who witnessed the tragedy. The attack lasted about twenty minutes. It is around 10:40 p.m. on July 14, 2016, when a 19-tonne white truck drives at full speed on the Promenade des Anglais where more than 30,000 people are gathered and waiting for the fireworks. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian alone in the vehicle, is the driver. Coming from the Magnan district, the man rushes for two kilometers and enters the area made exceptionally pedestrian for the fireworks of the National Day. Arrived in front of the Hotel Negresco, the driver opened fire several times on the police and continued on his way for 300 meters before his vehicle was immobilized by the police in front of the Palais de la Méditerranée. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who got out of the truck, refused to respond to the summons of the police and was shot dead by two corporals around 11 p.m.
It was during his mad and murderous race that Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel killed 86 people and injured more than 400. The security forces present for the security of the event quickly receive reinforcements in the minutes following the attack. Around 11:20 p.m., while the terrorist was neutralized, a security perimeter was set up near Place Masséna. Several establishments are requisitioned to take care of the victims: the High Club is transformed into a field hospital and the University Center of the Mediterranean into a psychological cell.
In the crowd as around the Promenade des Anglais, onlookers are shaken and terrified by the scene. Some report elements on the apparent desire of the driver to kill and on his possible radicalization, like Pépé who testifies in Nice-Matin. “We heard Allahu akbar several times, three times,” said the man who witnessed the tragedy from his balcony. “I saw that he was driving to the right, to the left, in all directions, to aim for as many visitors as possible. It was horrible, there were children on the ground, in pieces, women, people elderly … It is not easy, neither to live, nor to tell”, he adds.
Only a few hours after the attack in Nice, on July 14, 2016, François Hollande, then President of the Republic, judged that “the terrorist character [de l’attaque] cannot be denied”. Occurring a few months after the attacks of November 13, 2015, the attack carried out on the Promenade des Anglais was quickly linked to terrorism. Hypothesis reinforced by the claim of the attack by the Islamic State (IS) on its Al-Bayan radio station two days later, IS called Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel a “soldier [menant] the operation in response to calls to target nationals of coalition countries”.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office with national jurisdiction for terrorism had been seized of the case and had entrusted the investigations to the investigators of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI). . The first elements had not made it possible to establish a link between the killer and a terrorist group but had found evidence of the radicalization of the thirties, in particular by the presence of photos of actions and the flag of the IS on his computer. personal. Research had also found traces of contacts between Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel and personalities known to the DGSI as radical Islamists according to the Telegraph. The perpetrator of the attack was not known to the French or Tunisian intelligence services before the 2016 attack, according to the Guardian.
Bernard Cazeneuve, Minister of the Interior in 2016, described Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlelqui as “[semblant] to have radicalized very quickly” and evoked “an attack of a new type” committed by “individuals sensitive to the message of Daesh (Arabic acronym for the Islamic State) who engage in extremely violent actions without necessarily having participated in combat, without necessarily having been trained”. The trial of the Nice attack will return to the terrorist nature of the attack of July 14, 2016, in particular via the judgment of the three main defendants prosecuted for “criminal terrorist association”.