France pays tribute to victims on 6th anniversary of terrorist attacks in Paris
France marked Saturday the sixth anniversary of the night Islamic State militants killed 130 people in coordinated attacks on a concert hall, bars, restaurants and a football stadium. Prime Minister Jean Castex and other government officials were silent to remember the victims of the November 13, 2015 attacks.
Twenty men were tried in September in connection with the deadliest attack in peacetime France. Salah Abdeslam, a 32-year-old French-Moroccan, is believed to be the only surviving member of the group suspected of carrying out the attacks after other members blew themselves up or were killed by the police. The other 19 suspects are accused of helping to provide weapons or cars or of playing a role in organizing the attacks.
Most of the defendants face life in prison if convicted.
On that gloomy Friday night six years ago, terrorists from the Islamic State group killed 130 people in coordinated mass shootings and suicide bombings in the Bataclan music hall, on the terraces of Paris’s restaurants and on the outskirts of the stadium in Paris. football Stade de France, north of the city. Almost a quarter of those killed were foreigners. Many had gone to see the Californian rockers Eagles of Death Metal on the Bataclan stage, where the attack claimed 90 lives.
Years of preparation, an unprecedented trial in scale and worthy of a 1 million page investigative archive began on September 8. Over the course of nine months, the 20 defendants in a special 8 million euro courtroom tailor-made within the historic Palais de Justice courthouse complex, a stone’s throw from Notre-Dame Cathedral , in the heart of Paris. The verdict is expected next May.
The court has registered more than 2,300 plaintiffs in the proceedings, including 215 foreigners and three Frenchmen with dual nationality from 36 different countries, from Mexico to Cameroon, from Egypt to Japan.
Hundreds of survivors and relatives of the deceased are also testifying in court.
Twenty people were indicted in September in connection with the November 13, 2015 attacks, which left 130 people dead. © FMM
( Jowharwith REUTERS)
