Former French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve ‘tormented’ by Paris attacks

France’s minister in charge of security at the time of the 2015 Paris attacks in which Islamist gunmen killed 130 people told a court on Wednesday that he was haunted by the question of whether the authorities could have done more to avoid it.

Former Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve defended the authorities’ action, saying they had done everything possible with the information available, with his only criticism directed at the lack of cooperation between Europe.

But when asked by the court if he had any regrets, he said: “It has not been a day since the attacks occurred where he did not ask me if I could have done something that I did not do. This question haunts me constantly.”

“I’ll keep asking myself that until my last breath.”

At the time, France was already on high alert following attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in Paris in January of the same year.

Cazeneuve said authorities were particularly concerned about a possible attack on schools, but had never received information about a specific threat at the Bataclan concert hall, where 90 people were killed.

The assault with weapons and bombs on six restaurants and bars, the Bataclan concert hall and a sports stadium in and around Paris on November 13, 2015, which also injured hundreds of people, was the deadliest attack in France. in peacetime and left deep scars.

Of the 20 accused, Salah Abdeslam is the only surviving member of the cell charged with carrying out the attacks. Is stopped.

Thirteen others, 10 of whom are also in custody, are charged with crimes ranging from helping provide guns or cars to the attackers to planning to participate in the assault.

Six more, mostly Islamic State officials, will be tried by abstaining for helping organize the attacks. Several are believed to have died since then.

Most face life in prison if convicted.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, which had urged its followers to attack France for its involvement in fighting the militant group in Iraq and Syria.

The trial has moved to testimony from police, officials and academics, after weeks during which survivors and relatives of those who died told devastating stories about the attacks and how they have been trying to cope ever since.

Cazeneuve has been called to speak as a witness. The president of France at the time, François Hollande, testified last week.

The trial began in September and a verdict is expected in late May.

( Jowharwith REUTERS)