” The trial of 20 men accused in a series of coordinated attacks on Paris in 2015 that spread fear across Europe and transformed France opened Wednesday in a custom-built complex embedded within a 13th-century courthouse.
Nine Islamic State group gunmen and suicide bombers struck within minutes of one another at several locations around Paris on Nov. 13, 2015, leaving 130 people dead and hundreds wounded. It was the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II and among the worst terror attacks to hit the West.
The worst carnage was at the Bataclan concert hall, where three men with assault rifles gunned down scores of people and grabbed a handful of hostages. Others targeted the national soccer stadium, where the president was attending a game, as well as cafes filled with people on a mild autumn night.
The lone surviving attacker from that night, Salah Abdeslam, is the key defendant — but he has so far refused to speak to investigators, denying them answers to many of the remaining questions about the attacks and the people who planned them. Abdeslam, whose brother was among the suicide bombers, appeared wearing a black short-sleeved shirt and black trousers, his long hair tied back.
When asked to state his profession, he declared he was “a fighter for Islamic State” after intoning a prayer.
Abdeslam, who fled the night of the attacks after ditching his car and a malfunctioning suicide vest, is the only defendant charged with murder. The other defendants present face lesser terrorism charges.
The presiding judge, Jean-Louis Peries, acknowledged the extraordinary nature of the attacks, which changed security in Europe and France’s political landscape, and the trial to come. France only emerged from the state of emergency declared in the wake of the attacks in 2017, after incorporating many of the harshest measures into law.
“The events that we are about to decide are inscribed in their historic intensity as among the international and national events of this century,” he said.
Dominique Kielemoes, whose son bled to death at one of the cafes, said hearing victims’ testimonies at the trial will be crucial to both their own healing and that of the nation.” apnews.com
Comment: I am reminded by this process of justice that the defendants’ fellow jihadis like to have the condemned kneel in their orange jump suits while some hirsute animal in human form grabs him by the hair and saws off his head with a bowie knife look-alike.
I suggest that the engine of decapitation be constructed at the site of the Bataclan and that those condemned be brought to visit it several times before their big day. pl
https://apnews.com/article/2015-paris-terror-attacks-trial-begins-75b4ba6a16aadbdff305b342f425fe87
What a fine piece of craft. Beautiful Oak with fine basketry fit for purpose. I can think of many uses right here in the USA.
I am so totally with you on this. When young I opposed the death penalty, but that changed and I view it now through two lenses. One lens is the elementary common sense matter of simply disposing of irremediable people who it would be a pointless waste to warehouse for life and the other lens is “pour encourage les autres”. I would favor it be done in the light of day and the guillotine shares fine visuals with hanging and while quick and final it does make for good spectacle.
Bring back the guillotine. The most humane form of execution if the blade is heavy, sharp and on target. No goof up with injections. It also leaves a strong aroma of fear. Seeing a severed head plop off in 1/8 of a second. No thank you Sir. I bid you ado.
I agree with the sentiment, but personally I would not like to see this exquisite instrument soiled with the blood of these creatures. The guillotine’s role in French culture is too important. It was the device used to cut the aristocracy down to size and IMO it should remain unused until such a need arises again.
Perhaps jihadists should be granted a culturally appropriate fate. Kneeling behind a pickup containing one of the victim’s relatives armed with an AK47 – something like that maybe. In this case the center of the Stade de France might be a suitable venue, as it was one of the places attacked.
That sounds like a good punishment for them. It would be culturally appropriate. The guillotine should be reserved for Macron, who has revealed himself in his propagation of medicofascism, as an enemy of the people, a classic guillotine target.
I don’t think they should be given the public stage offered by the guillotine either at the site of the Bataclan or behind prison walls. That’s a glorious martyrdom. They should be left in a deep, dark cell and forgotten. Don’t starve them and don’t ever speak of them. Just leave them with only their own thoughts until they die.
TTG In my experience most salafi jihadi types think they want to die for their God, but not today and probably not next week or month. I think the sectacle would be useful “to encourage the others,” and the French would enjoy it.
The French and many others would clearly enjoy it. I wouldn’t raise any objection despite what Papa Frank tells us. But I would prefer to see many more jihadis die without warning. It could be a shredder munition from a drone, a sniper’s bullet or have them bastards wake up and see their entrails on the floor next to them courtesy of a visit from the kinds of fellows we once cavorted with.
TTG
These things are not mutually exclusive.
Killing them or letting them rot in a cell doesn’t really matter…
What does matter is that none of you guy feel personnaliy responsible for those massacres even remotely.
But you did not oppose your governments when they went to F… up those countries…
And now you’re surprised because it has direct concequenses on your lives in the West…
After having totally destroyed Afghanistan for 20 years do you really thing that not one single crazy will go and bomb himself in the middle of Time Square if he gets a chance ?
And that day will you debate if he is responsible or not or simply hang him and be happy that “justice is done” ?
[ Excuse me but the “they started it” doesn’t work here…
9/11 was (supposedly) done by Saoudies not Afghans and if I was one of them, I would hate your gutts for the rest of my life and do all the harm I could to the US for as long as I live… ]
Luckily I am not from any of those countries and blowing myself up is not part of my bucket list but I can perfectly understand why certain people feel that way 🙁
Sysati
“Killing them” It’s the pageantry of the thing that would be lost by letting them rot in jail. Assuming that you really are a Turk, can you honestly say that if the West tried to accommodate the fervently Muslim, the jihadis would not want to destroy the “house of war?”
Thank you. Let’s not mix bloods. Deep black holes (‘oubliettes’) will do.
During the fighting against Daesh and the liberation of territories it controlled, the Kurds (YPG and YPJ) found a photo album left by these assassins (For the place, I think it is Manbij, but am not sure).
Summary:
The assassins came to Syria without any problem. Landing in Istanbul. Crossed the Syrian border without difficulty. 3 or 4 weeks of training in a Daesh military training camp. Shooting and use of AK, explosive belt, etc.
At the end of terrorism training, they made tourism in Egypt via Istanbul Pictures of the pyramids.
Then they returned to the camp in Syria. They crossed the Turkish border without any problems for the third time and flew back to Europe. It seems that the tour of the (future) heroes deserving their 72 virgins (36 ?) lasted 2 to 3 months.
The album, very well done, contained enough portraits with surroundings to leave no doubt about identities and activities.
The Kurds can be devious. But not to the point of making a fake. This seems beyond their means. On the other hand, the case is not rare. A journalist, Jenan Moussa, was able to convict a Daesh woman on trial in Germany thanks to the contents of her phone lost in Syria.
The Kurdish news website kept this information for 15 days without any echo in Europe. It is fair to acknowledge that this information and the evidence left behind came after the mass murders.
The means, organization and logistics were necessarily serious. It seems to me that the northern neighbor has an important responsibility in this safari. A clue: the sultan expressed quite specific threats against European countries, especially Belgium, before the events. It’s the point.
I am waiting for the press to give up its uninformative laments to try to find out if a state aid or complicity will be evoked. I don’t think it will be said. The blackout is too tight.