For the last 25 “spokespersons” for these bereaved families and those survivors of the worst post-war attacks, it is a matter of recounting the indelible wounds of a night of horror before the prosecution does not get up from Wednesday to take his requisitions.

For these final words on behalf of a diversity of civil parties – more than 2,500 are constituted – there will have been a lot of talk of silence in the pleadings of their lawyers.

This “deafening silence” which, on November 13, 2015, struck Paris and Saint-Denis, a “silence imposed by the bursts, the dry noises” of Kalashnikov, recalls Me Nathalie Senyk.

This silence also imposed on themselves by many civil parties “who have never dared to pass the door of the courtroom, perhaps out of apprehension”, underlines Me Célia Nourredine.

For others, “being interested from afar” was “maintaining a safe distance”, notes Me Zoé Royaux.

Fatou and Lucille are “part of these invisible, silent civil parties” who did not testify at the trial, the first because “she did not want to impose herself to live this nightmare”, the second for “fear of boring the court “, indicates their lawyer Me Isabelle Guttadauro.

In an unprecedented way, 400 civil parties presented their suffering at the bar of the Assize Court at the beginning and at the end of this river hearing.

– “Infinite mass” –

This sum of testimonies “is the strict reality of the attacks and it is a good thing to face them”, points out Me Guttadauro.

Following her, Me Claire Josserand-Schmidt wishes to quote the first names of the 37 people she represents, Jean-Pierre, Evelyne, Johanna… so that they are not remembered “like an infinite mass of pain “.

“They had come to seek in this trial an attentive listening and a place, legitimate, which is theirs. And they found both”, she notes.

“They also came with this nagging question: why? It is inevitable to seek to understand in the face of this inept carnage. They need rationality”, continues Me Josserand-Schmidt.

“Interrogating Salah Abdeslam”, the only member still alive of the jihadist commandos which left 130 dead and hundreds injured, “is trying to understand what drives him when he agrees to wear an explosive belt”, assures she.

And faced with the “silence of some” accused, “the laconic speech of others”, there is for the civil parties “a new injunction: to mourn what there was to know”, breathes Me Josserand-Schmidt .

This silence will have been forced for certain non-French-speaking foreign victims who had the “feeling of being excluded from their own trial”, deplores Me Clémence Witt.

She tells of this “forgotten” Chilean family who was not notified of the hearing, the “debates translated in extremis” for the civil parties who had made the trip to Paris, those who never accessed it. for lack of being able to connect from abroad to the web radio.

“This lack of care was experienced as a negation of their victim status,” sighs Me Witt.

If he did not give “all the answers” they expected, this trial will however have allowed “the meeting of two bereaved mothers”, one Spanish, the other Chilean, and their “sense of belonging to the community of victims”, concludes Me Witt.

One last time, a “deep silence” will win the courtroom on June 29, when the Assize Court will deliver its verdict, launches Me Aurélie Cerceaux to the professional magistrates.

“Your decision will break it. (…) I would like your decision to allow the victims to find peace, to no longer see the horror, to no longer be afraid, to move on”, proclaims- she.