A French court has convicted 20 men of carrying out or collaborating in Islamist terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015, following a trial that tested the country’s judicial system and recovered painful memories for the victims.
Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the so-called Islamic State group responsible for the attacks, was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Chief Justice Jean-Louis Périès took almost an hour to read the verdict in a room full of plenary Wednesday night. “After 148 days of hearings during which 415 victims testified, the court wanted to set out its reasoning in a concrete way,” he said.
In addition to Abdeslam, five Islamic State figures, tried in absentia and allegedly killed in Syria, were also sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Another defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment, with possible parole after 22 years. Three other defendants were sentenced to 30 years in prison, which was lighter than the life sentence the prosecutors had requested.
They were convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorism as a result of actions such as fighting for the Islamic State group in Syria, helping to plan attacks or providing logistical support.
The remaining defendants received shorter sentences ranging from two to 18 years to play minor supporting roles.
The verdict closes a historic 10-month trial that took place in a courtroom built specifically at the Palais de Justice in Paris. Not only did he try the accused but he also gave voice to the victims of the attacks.
The trial stemmed from the deadliest peacetime attack in France, carried out in November 2015 by a Franco-Belgian cell sent by the Islamic State group. The cell attacked people at a heavy metal concert at the Bataclan Theater, in front of a football match at the Stade de France and on multiple terraces of cafes and restaurants east of Paris. About 400 people were injured.
A victim is covered on the Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire, near the Bataclan theater after the attacks © Thierry Chesnot / Getty Images
Victims played a central role in the trial, with hundreds of people appearing in person to recount their heartbreaking experiences during and after the attacks. Their participation reflected a distinctive aspect of the French legal system, which allows victims to join a case as civil parties and be represented by lawyers who can examine evidence, ask questions and call witnesses.
Virginie Sansico, a historian who observed the trial as part of a research group, said the proceedings as a result had the taste of a truth commission aimed at forging France’s collective memory of the facts.
“There were two parallel processes underway: judging the accused and giving the victims space to talk and heal,” he told France Info radio.
Bruno Poncet, a survivor of the Bataclan attack, said the trial had helped him, but he was glad it was over. “Being a victim of terrorism is not my profession, so I want to move to a new stage in my life,” the 49-year-old railroad said.
Despite the testimonies of investigators, intelligence officials, academics and psychologists, some aspects of the attack remain unexplained and prosecutors acknowledge that they were unable to bring the main planners to justice.
An image of Salah Abdeslam of the Belgian police © Belgian Federal Police / AP
Another mystery is why Abdeslam did not detonate his own explosive vest: whether the aircraft was defective or whether he withdrew from exploding in a cafe north of Paris for “humanity”, as he stated in the his testimony. Judge Périès said the court had found that the vest “was not functional”, which “seriously calls into question Abdeslam’s statements about the resignation”.
The views of the 32-year-old French citizen, who grew up in Molenbeek, a suburb of Brussels, changed during the trial amid hostility, provocation and lamentation. On the first day he declared himself an Islamic State soldier who justified the attacks in response to the French aggression on Syria, but on the last day he apologized to the victims. “I’m not a killer,” he said.
The Bataclan attacks were part of a traumatic period for France, with terrorist acts ranging from the murder of journalists in Charlie Hebdo magazine to a truck attack in Nice. Its effects still resonate in the country, affecting debates on immigration and security as the far right rises as a political force.
Georges Fenech, a judge and former member of the National Assembly who investigated the intelligence flaws that led to the attack, said in a pre-trial interview that these “dominant effects” were still being felt in the French intelligence policies and in particular geopolitics.
“There was a before and an after on November 13, 2015 in France in the same way that there was a before and an after on September 11, 2001 in the US,” he said.