At the request of the victims’ association Life for Paris, which wanted to confront the accused at the crime scene, the special assize court viewed this Friday, April 1, around twenty photos of the interior of the Bataclan taken after the attack. , and listened to audios of the attack.
Bodies. Bodies almost everywhere, on top of each other, and pools of blood. There are so many that the soles of a man’s sneakers are red. Even if they were carefully chosen so as not to undermine the dignity of the victims, the images of the Bataclan pit are chilling. The November 13 attacks killed 131 people. Ninety were killed in the concert hall.
In all, about twenty photos taken by the police after the massacre are thus projected, at the request of the association Life for Paris which wanted a trial ” sanitized ” and ” confront the accused at the crime scene “.
In the once again full courtroom, a leaden silence accompanies the projection, sometimes pierced by a few muffled exclamations on the benches of the civil parties. In the box, some defendants look away, stare at the ground. One of them keeps his eyes closed and plugs his ears, reports our special correspondent at the Paris courthouse, Moissonniere Marine.
“A punch in the face”
Just before, the special assize court listened to three excerpts from the soundtrack of this night of horror. Those of a recording picked up by a dictaphone found in the theater. The first announces the arrival of the terrorists: the guitars of the Eagles of Death Metal interrupted by bursts of fire, followed by jerking fire and cries of fear and pain. Two minutes of recording that seems like an eternity.
The second passage is very brief. We vaguely hear a hostage yelling at the police not to come in, otherwise the terrorists will blow everything up. The last excerpt is that of the final assault. ” We run, we run, we run » ; ” Go! Go! Go shout the police to the hostages they have just freed. The president announces a recess. Some civil parties leave the room in tears.
It’s the power of terrorism to produce such shocking images, but we couldn’t avoid watching them. For the civil parties, there is a before and an after this broadcast.
Arthur Dénouveaux, president of the Life for Paris association
Thierry was at the Bataclan this evening of November 13, 2015. He remembers everything. And yet he received these sights and sounds as a ” punch in the face “. ” Tonight is going to be tough. I will definitely still have trouble sleeping “, he confides to the microphone of our special correspondent at the courthouse, Nathanael Vittrant.
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Marie also made the trip. She wanted the men in the box to see the result of what they are accused of contributing to. ” It shows the cruelty of what this attack was. These images and soundtracks are extremely violent, but they are true. This is the reality of what we have been through. There, we are elsewhere than in the provocations which have taken up a lot of space. It remains to be seen whether this will make the defendants react, several of whom are now walled in silence.