A group of Islamist gunmen, including Abdeslam’s brother Brahim, then indiscriminately opened fire from a car on half a dozen restaurants in the trendy 10th and 11th districts of the capital which were packed with people winding down on the balmy autumn evening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The massacre culminated at the Bataclan music venue where Californian group Eagles of Death Metal were performing to a packed house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three jihadists stormed in as the band was playing the number “Kiss the Devil”. A total of 90 people lost their lives there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollande, facing another terror crisis just 10 months after gunmen attacked the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, ordered borders closed and declared a state of emergency, a first since the Algerian War more than half a century earlier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– ‘Step forwards’ –<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The trial is also expected to lay bare the enduring psychological wounds of survivors, the 350 who were injured and families who lost loved ones, who will give five weeks of testimony starting on September 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I have to attend. I will surely suffer but it is a step forwards,” said Cristina Garrido, a 60-year-old Spaniard who lost her son Juan Alberto at the Bataclan. “What I want is for (the defendants) to hear the pain they left us with,” she told AFP in Madrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdeslam’s defence, led by lawyer Olivia Ronen, 31, have said that while the trial will be filled with emotions, the “judiciary must keep its distance if it does not want to lose sight of the principles that underpin our state of law”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under current scheduling, the verdict is due to be read out on May 24 and 25, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only comparable precedent for the trial is the one for the January 2015 attacks against the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly and a Jewish supermarket, which opened in September 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three attacks carried out by “lone wolf” young radical Islamists, including the October 16 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty, shook France as that trial was ongoing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The biggest trial in France’s modern legal history begins on Wednesday over the November 2015 attacks on Paris that saw 130 people slaughtered at bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall.  The suicide bombing and gun assault by three teams of jihadists, later claimed by the Islamic State group, was France’s worst post-war atrocity.  A purpose-built facility at the historic court of justice on the Ile de la Cite in central Paris will host the trial, with 14 of the 20 defendants present, including the only surviving attacker, Salah Abdeslam. “Everyone has their own expectations, but we know that this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"yoast_head":"\n