Brussels, (Brussels Morning)- The trial over the November 13, 2015 attacks in Paris has concluded after nearly ten months of hearings. All parties are now awaiting the ruling of the special court of assizes in Paris, which is expected on Wednesday evening.
Since Monday, the five professional judges forming the court and their deputies have retreated to a secure barracks near Paris to deliberate. They can’t leave.
Only on Wednesday will the judges return to the courthouse to inform the fourteen suspects who were present at the trial about their fate. According to BRUZZ, President Jean-Louis Peries announced Monday evening that the hearing would resume at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
In his last words at the trial on Monday, Salah Abdeslam, 32, the sole survivor of the command of the Islamic State (IS) terror group, which killed 130 people and inflicted hundreds of victims on November 13, 2015 in Paris and Saint-Denis: ” I’ve made mistakes, it’s true, but I’m not a murderer, I’m not one to kill people, and if you convict me of murder, it would be unjust.”
“Public opinion thinks that I was on the terraces shooting people or that I was in the Bataclan. You know the truth is just the opposite,” it continued. “I have apologised to the victims, but some will continue to say that this is insincere, or a strategy.” Abdeslam stated earlier during the trial that he had refrained from detonating his bomb belt out of “humanity”.
Besides Abdeslam, the thirteen other suspects present also got the last word. They expressed their regret and condolences to the survivors and relatives of the victims. “I trust in justice, I expect a lot from the verdict,” said several defendants. The six other defendants, five of whom are presumed dead, are being tried in absentia.
Five years to life
The public prosecutor has demanded sentences of five years to life against twenty suspects. Abdeslam may also go to jail for the rest of his life, which, according to his lawyer, is equivalent to a “slow death penalty”. Mohamed Abrini, “the man in the hat”, also risks lifelong imprisonment.
The criminal court of Brussels will pronounce a verdict on Thursday in the process about the Belgian part of the investigation.
