Paris attacks: Historic day of reckoning [Six Years Later] for night of terror

BBC ^ | 09/08/2021 | Hugh Schofield

[BenLurkin]

In a specially constructed courtroom in the historic Palais de Justice on the Île de la Cité, 20 men will be judged for the jihadist Islamic State (IS) plot that led to 130 dead and hundreds of wounded that night, not just at the Bataclan but also at the Stade de France and on the café-terraces of the 10th and 11th arrondissements.

The aim of the trial is not just to establish the guilt or innocence of the 20 accused, it is also to document the origins, planning and execution of the 13 November conspiracy:

To accommodate the large numbers of lawyers, plaintiffs, journalists and members of the public, it was decided to convert an entire gallery of the 19th-Century Palais de Justice.

The gallery now contains a 45m (147ft) by 15m wood-panelled salle, with seating for 600, which will be the main courtroom, as well as two other principal rooms for press and relatives.

Of the other 19 defendants, six are absent and five of them are presumed dead: senior IS men probably killed in US drone strikes. The sixth is in prison in Turkey. Of the others some are accused of helping the gang without necessarily knowing the extent of the conspiracy.

But others, it is alleged, were important figures, and some may themselves have been intended as suicide-bombers on the night of the attack.

One of the more intriguing items of evidence in the case is a computer abandoned by the gang and found in Brussels following the March 2016 attacks there.

This included a schedule setting out the 13 November attacks, including the three Paris targets - but also two more: Schiphol airport in the Netherlands and "metro".

[BenLurkin]

[SuperLuminal]

Just think...
About five (5) years from now we’ll see the identical type of show trial set up for the Jan 6 defendants...