After three months of hearing, the trial of the Nice attack is coming to an end this Monday, December 12. The seven defendants present out of the eight judged speak one last time before the deliberations. The verdict is expected on Tuesday.
It has been more than three months since the trial of theNice attack still stands the walls of the special assize court of Paris. The hearings ended on Monday, December 12, 2022 after the last speeches of the seven defendants present at the trial out of the eight judged. The five professional magistrates and their four deputies withdrew mid-morning at the end of the debates to deliberate in an undisclosed location. Whether the decision is easy to make or whether the exchanges are heated between the jurors, the verdict must be rendered on Tuesday, December 13, as provided for in the procedure.
The deliberation is eagerly awaited by the victims and the families of the victims of the Nice attack which injured 86 and more than 450 on July 14, 2016 on the Promenade des Anglais. With 865 people and associations brought as civil parties and more than 2,500 victims, several thousand people hope to obtain compensation even if the scope of the verdict will be limited, the only assailant of the Nice attack, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, having been shot by the police the night of the attack. Of the eight defendants, none is tried for complicity with the author of the attack. Three are tried for terrorist criminal association while the other five people are tried for common law offenses related to the legislation on weapons.
2 to 15 years in prison requisitioned against the eight defendants
During the deliberations, the jurors will take into account the requisitions of the national anti-terrorism prosecution (Pnat), which vary between two and fifteen years of imprisonment. Against the three men accused of association of terrorist criminals (AMT) who incur up to 20 years in prison, 15 years of confinement were required but the Pnat asked that the head of AMT not be held against one of the defendants, Ramzi Aréfa, who provided the assailant with a weapon but could not be aware of his radicalization. For the five other defendants, including four Albanians, three men and one woman, and the Tunisian absent from the trial, the requisitions range from two to ten years in prison. All face up to 10 years in prison.