” On the first day of hearing of the trial of the Paris attacks of November 13, 2015, relates Nice Matin, when asked what profession he exercised, the main defendant, Salah Abdeslam, had dropped, still arrogant and provocative: ‘Fighter of the Islamic State’.
A crushing blow for the victims. (…) What would have answered Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the killer of the attack of July 14, 2016 in Nice, wonders Nice Matin, if he had faced justice during the trial which opens on Monday? What would this 31-year-old Tunisian have answered if he had not been shot dead by the police, after leaving 86 people dead and more than 450 injured, on the route of his truck, launched on the Promenade des Anglais, this party night? What would have answered this man who mistreated his wife, his first cousin? What would have answered this father of three children capable of stabbing the teddy bear of his daughter (…)? During the three and a half months of trial, the civil parties will not have to face the gaze of the one who took everything away from them. Some victims regret it, others do not. They will still have to face their executioner in another way, as he will haunt the debates. His life will be dissected in an attempt to understand the murderous construction. Bouhlel, this ghost so present, took so many of his secrets with him. »
And nice morning to wonder again: the eight defendants who will be judged this Monday, seven men – including one on the run – and a woman, will they make it possible to lift part of the veil which still covers the Promenade des Anglais, six years after the deadliest attack committed in France by one person? »
Nothing has changed…
” It was six years ago but nothing has changed, and the threat still rumbles, relief The Parisian. The poison of anti-Semitism or the attack of August 12 against Salman Rushdie, more than thirty years after he was condemned by a fatwa, show us to what extent hatred has not dried up. Even today, we read intolerable messages on social networks and we hear unbearable remarks, about women in particular. About our ways of life, about our values. So yes, concludes Le Parisien, vigilance and intransigence, firmness, to protect our living together, is the least we owe our children and future generations. »
Kenza, traumatized for life
Among the survivors, Kenza, 10 years old… Release recount : ” July 14, 2016, Kenza has just celebrated its fourth candle. She watches the fireworks with her family, a packet of candies in her hand. “Kenza turned around and she said: Mom, there’s a truck,” recalls her mother, Hager, 38. No time to run she says : he’s coming at us. I can not move. I can only protect my daughter with my body. I lay down hard on her. Mother and daughter throw themselves under the truck and pass between its wheels”. Hager is injured on the right side. Kenza emerges unscathed physically. Not psychologically. She couldn’t hold back any longer. She was not sleeping. It tumbled. Since the attack, it is crises of nerves, anguish, tears. She sees the scenes again: she describes to me a crushed head on the ground that she saw”. The next day, pursues Liberation, Kenza was received at the Lenval Pediatric Psychotrauma Assessment Center in Nice. Six years later, she returns twice a week for consultation. “She no longer sleeps in her room but in my bed, says her mother again. She can no longer take the tram, she can no longer bear the distance with me. She is often absent from school. There are so many nightmares , so tired. Sometimes she wakes up and she vomits. A siren in the street, an alarm at school, a truck, it reactivates everything. She shakes my hand and gets on it automatically.” »
Accused but not accomplices
So, “ in the box, 8 accused, but no accomplice », raises The world. “ Three knew the killer. The first is accused of having served as an intermediary for the purchase of a weapon and the other two of having been aware of his recent radicalization. None is tried for “complicity”, but for “terrorist criminal association”, a crime punishable by thirty years in prison. »
And The world to ask oneself: did they guess the drama that was looming? Are they guilty of complacency towards him or victims of his perversity? The verdict is expected in mid-December. »