The perpetrators and accomplices of the 13-November 2015 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and injured several hundred more will be tried by a special assize court starting Wednesday, September 8, 2021.
An extraordinary trial for an extraordinary case. First, the numbers. The terrorist attack sponsored by Daesh left 130 dead and 413 injured. The indictment (OMA) is 348 pages long plus annexes. 1750 civil parties, 330 lawyers, 130 accredited media. A special courtroom had to be built in the Palais de Justice de Paris on the Ile de la Cité.
The investigation that allowed the identification and neutralization of the perpetrators of these attacks and their accomplices was also exceptional. A titanic task, a scientific rigor in the exploitation of clues and an exemplary collaboration between magistrates and police officers from several countries.
As a result, six years after the events, 20 people are now being held accountable for their actions. In the dock, Salah Abdeslam is the only survivor of the three terrorist commandos who spread death on November 13, 2015 in Paris and its suburbs. The others are either dead or on the run.
Three commandos
On the evening of Friday, November 13, 2015, three teams, each composed of three men, attacked different locations in the Paris area:
- The three members of the first team (later identified as Frenchman Bilal HADFI and two Iraqis using false Syrian passports in the names of Ahmad AL MOHAMMAD and Mohamad ALMAHMOD) detonated their explosive belts near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, while the soccer match between France and Germany was taking place. It was 9:16 p.m.
- The second team (composed of Belgian nationals Abdelhamid ABAAOUD, Chakib AKROUH and Brahim ABDESLAM), machine-gunned three restaurant terraces in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, before one of the assailants (the third named) committed a suicide attack, setting off his explosive belt in a fourth establishment located nearby
- The third team (Frenchmen Samy AMIMOUR, Ismaël Omar MOSTEFAI and Foued MOHAMED AGGAD) entered the Bataclan concert hall as the hard rock band “Eagles Of Death Metal” was performing on stage. They machine-gunned the crowd killing 90 people, then took hostages, before being killed during a joint intervention of the BRI and the RAID.
A heavy gunfight
Two of the three members of the second so-called “Terrace Team” survived their crimes. The first, who wore orange shoes like those filmed during the second shooting, was quickly identified as the Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid ABAAOUD, the second will be much later identified as the Belgian national Chakib AKROUH
On the night of November 17-18, 2015, the RAID stormed the third floor apartment of the building 4 rue du Corbillon in Saint-Denis where Abdelhamid ABAAOUD, Chakib AKROUH and Hasna AIT BOULAHCENE were sheltering. After a heavy gunfight and the triggering of an explosive vest, the three occupants were killed.
The sole survivor of the commandos responsible for these attacks, Salah Abdeslam was captured by Belgian police in the Brussels commune of Molenbeek on March 18, 2016, after four months on the run.
A claim statement from the Islamic State via the French-language Amaq agency was released on November 14, 2015.
The Bataclan attack left 90 people dead (DR)