“Those who committed these despicable crimes are nothing but common terrorists, criminals,” said Advocate General Nicolas Le Bris at the start of his final speech.
At the end of his indictment, Nicolas le Bris and his two colleagues from the Pnat, Camille Hennetier and Nicolas Braconnay, must announce the sentences they are asking for against Salah Abdeslam and his 19 co-defendants.
Twelve defendants, including six tried in their absence, face life imprisonment.
“The bloodthirsty fury of these criminals was limitless,” said Nicolas Le Bris, returning in detail to the attacks in front of the Stade de France, on the terraces of Parisian cafes and at the Bataclan.
In the theater it was “a massacre, a carnage that they wanted to perpetrate”, he said: “unfortunately they succeeded”. On the terraces, “a mild November evening ended in a nightmare”.
“Cowardice could be the motto” of the Islamic State (IS) group, said Nicolas Le Bris before completing his sentence by speaking of “cowardice and perversion”.
– “Seasoned Jihadists” –
Since Wednesday, the three representatives of the Pnat have been meticulously reconstructing “the puzzle” of the worst attacks committed on French soil, from the genesis of the project born in Syria to the recruitment of “seasoned jihadists” by the IS, until the final preparations.
During the first eleven hours of their requisitions, the Advocates General, in a precise and sometimes arid presentation, dissected the charges they hold against the 20 defendants referred to the special Assize Court of Paris.
Will the Pnat ask for life with an “incompressible” security period against Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the commandos who struck France on November 13, 2015, staggering the country?
This sanction, which reduces the possibility of obtaining an adjustment of sentence and therefore a release, was only very rarely requested and pronounced only four times.
The prosecution exhausted Salah Abdeslam’s line of defense on Thursday. Remained silent during almost all of the investigation, the 32-year-old Frenchman repeatedly affirmed at the hearing that he “gave up” on triggering his explosive belt on the evening of the attacks, “out of humanity”.
He assured to have joined the jihadist cell “at the last moment”, denying having been “a real recruit” or even a “replacement”, noted Thursday Nicolas Le Bris, ironically on this alleged role of “terrorist fallen from the sky”.
“He tries to put you to sleep”, launched the magistrate on Friday. By now evoking that he was to blow himself up in a café in the 18th arrondissement, “a personal, incidental target”, and no longer at the Stade de France or in the metro, Salah Abdeslam “seeks to cut all ties with the” jihadist cell, supported Nicolas Le Bris on Friday.
Talkative box neighbor and childhood friend of Salah Abdeslam, Mohamed Abrini, “the man in the hat” of the Brussels attacks in March 2016, was also “well planned” for November 13, according to the prosecution.
The day before he had accompanied the commandos in the “convoy of death” from Brussels to the Paris region.
His “hasty departure” on the night of November 12 to 13, 2015, due according to the prosecution to a last minute renunciation, “constituted an unforeseen event for all members of the commandos”, estimated Nicolas Le Bris.
The prosecution said it was “convinced” that “11 men” should be part of the commandos. Just as he is “convinced” that the accused Osama Krayem and Sofien Ayari were to “commit an attack on the evening of November 13” at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.
The “why” of their renunciation remains a mystery but they are the “two survivors of the Dutch commandos”, launched Nicolas Le Bris.
Members of the same cell whose commandos are “interchangeable” and “killing machines”, the Swede Osama Krayem and the Tunisian Sofien Ayari are “well and truly” for the public prosecutor’s office the “accomplices” of the attacks committed in Paris and St Denis.
The prosecution also did not spare the 10 other defendants present, suspected of having provided assistance to the cell.
The floor will be given to the defense from Monday and for two weeks. The verdict is expected on June 29.
