Terrorist attack in Paris 2015 – President, lawyers, victims’ associations: who are the players in the November 13 trial?

This XXL trial, scheduled to last more than eight and a half months, brings together nearly 1,800 civil parties and 330 lawyers. Nine professional judges, including four additional magistrates, make up the court.

130 dead, hundreds of injured … Almost 6 years after the terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris and Saint-Denis, the trial will open on September 8. For more than eight and a half months, 20 people – including Salah Abdeslam – will be tried by the special assize court in Paris. Who are the actors in this trial? Review.

The specially composed assize court

It is a court mainly composed of professional magistrates which will have to try the 20 defendants in this trial. This is always the case in terrorism cases. In the central place of the president: Jean-Louis Périès, magistrate for 40 years and for a long time an investigating magistrate. He has been working on this trial since spring 2020. He will be directly assisted by the first assessor, Frédérique Aline. Three other judges, all with knowledge of terrorist cases, will make up the court. Finally, four additional magistrates will attend the proceedings in order, if necessary, to be able to replace one of their colleagues.

The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, voice of the accusation

To carry the voice of the accusation, there are three, and this is a first. Camille Hennetier, Nicolas Le Bris and Nicolas Braconnay are the three Advocates General of this hearing. All three magistrates at the national anti-terrorism prosecution office, they have specialized for several years in jihadist litigation. On November 13, 2015, Nicolas Le Bris was the duty magistrate at the Paris prosecutor’s office. So he got the first alert phone call. Camille Hennetier, then head of the anti-terrorism section, went to the scene of the attacks alongside prosecutor François Molins. Nicolas Braconnay, for his part, was requisitioned to receive the victims at the Military Academy in the days following the attacks.

About thirty lawyers to defend the accused

Due to the size of this hearing, its length, but also the gravity of the charges against the 14 defendants present at the trial, all will be defended by at least two lawyers. For the main accused and only survivor of the commandos, Salah Abdeslam, his lawyer Olivia Ronen has chosen to form a defense team. In defense of the other defendants, we find the president of the association of criminal lawyers (ADAP) Christian Saint-Palais or the lawyer specializing in the defense of jihadists, Xavier Nogueras.

More than three hundred civil party lawyers

To represent the more than 1,800 victims who became civil parties in the case, there are more than 300 lawyers. Some, like Clémence Witt, Safya Akorri or Daphné Pugliesi were in defense for the trial of the January 2015 attacks. Others, like Samia Makhtouf, Marie-Laure Barré and Nathalie Senyck were already civil parties in the previous trials of attacks. Some of them were directly affected by these attacks, such as Jean Reinhart, who lost his nephew at the Bataclan.

Victims represented by several associations

In addition to the usual victims’ associations, such as FENVAC or AFVT, other associations were born in the days following the attacks. They bring together more than 800 victims and first responders of the attacks of November 13, 2015. 13Onze15Fraternité et Vérité was founded by Georges Salines, father of Lola, who died at the Bataclan. It is now chaired by Philippe Duperron, father of Thomas, also assassinated on November 13, 2015 and mainly includes relatives of deceased people. The Life for Paris association was born from a message shared on Facebook by Maureen Roussel, survivor of the Bataclan. Arthur Dénouveaux, also at the Bataclan for the Eagles of Death Metal concert, has chaired it for three years.

Anti-terrorism investigating judges, “Magistrates in the shadow”

They are not actors in this trial. But without them, this trial would not take place. Because this hearing comes after four years of hard work by anti-terrorism investigating judges. There were nine of them in total working on this case, leading the investigation, questioning the indicted, gathering the evidence. In short, to examine inculpatory and exculpatory evidence of the case before deciding on the referral of the twenty defendants to the specially composed assize court. The result of their work can be found in the 542 volumes of the dossier, the largest of the entire wave of Islamist attacks.

This article was published in France Inter. Here is a link to the French article: https://www.franceinter.fr/justice/president-avocats-associations-de-victimes-qui-sont-les-acteurs-du-proces-du-13-novembre

You can find other articles on the trial in this link: https://www.franceinter.fr/theme/attentats-de-paris

France Victimes prepared an extraordinary document prepared, titled ‘SUPPORTING VICTIMS IN LEGAL PROCEEDINGS FOR TERRORIST ATTACKS’. This document provides information, lessons learned and best practices about the way the French victims’ associations support victims of terrorism during the trials of the perpetrators, preparing them beforehand and accompanying them during the trials. This is a great opportunity to learn from their experience – thank you France Victimes for sharing this!