The biggest trial in France’s modern history opened on Wednesday of 20 suspects charged over the November 2015 Paris attacks that saw 130 people killed, with the expected nine months of hearings set to reopen still raw wounds.
The suicide bombing and gun assault by three teams of jihadists on bars, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue — planned in Syria and later claimed by the Islamic State terror group — was the worst postwar atrocity on French territory.
The only surviving attacker, Salah Abdeslam, was present with 13 other defendants as the trial started under the highest security at a purpose-built facility at the historic court of justice on the Ile de la Cite in central Paris.
Abdeslam told the court “there is no god but Allah” as he was asked to identify himself at the trial Wednesday.
Six others are being tried in absentia. Twelve of the 20 people on trial, including Abdeslam, face life sentences if convicted.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}
