what the seven defendants stated on the stand

It was one of many first defining moments of the Good bombing trial. The particular assize courtroom of Paris heard Tuesday, September 6, for the primary time, the defendants on the details, on the second day of the trial.

>> Trial of the July 14 assault in Good: the important thing figures of this extraordinary listening to

Invited to talk for the primary time on the details, the seven defendants current – the final is on the run – all needed to distance themselves from the murderous assault by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel who, driving a ram truck , had left 86 lifeless and greater than 450 injured on the Promenade des Anglais on July 14, 2016. All of them declare their innocence, and particularly the three fundamental defendants, tried for “terrorist legal affiliation”.

>> PODCAST. “Assault in Good, the kids of July 14”
On July 14, 2016, a truck drove down the Promenade des Anglais, killing 86 individuals, together with 15 minors. Because the trial begins, David Di Giacomo went to satisfy these whose lives have been turned the other way up by this assault. A podcast in 5 episodes to hearken to on franceinfo and the Radio France app.

In a drawling voice, nearly in a lament, Mohamed Ghraieb, who seems free below judicial supervision, unfolds his speech with out taking a breath. “It is unfair to take individuals’s lives like that. It is not a person who did this, it is a piece of rubbish“, denounces the fifties who faces 20 years of legal imprisonment.I by no means imagined that at some point I’d discover myself in such a lure. He tricked me“, stated the accused, talking of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian killed by the police on the night of the assault, a significant absentee from the trial, with out ever mentioning his title.

Somewhat earlier than him within the field, the 2 different fundamental defendants additionally proclaimed their innocence, particularly the youngest Ramzi Arefa, who was 21 on the time of the occasions. “As a Nicois, it isn’t simple to suppose that I’m concerned in such severe details”he stated.

>> “I am not afraid of vans, I am not afraid of the darkish”: six years after the Good assault, the kids of July 14 bruised however alive

At his aspect, within the field, Chorki Chafroud speaks in flip, translated by an interpreter: “Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was a pal… I am unable to discover the phrases to explain what he did. I do not know what he had in his head. At the moment I am scared“, says the accused. On the finish of the listening to, the civil events don’t disguise their annoyance: “They are saying they’ve been residing an ordeal for six years. I am unable to wait to clarify mine to them“, concludes one of many victims.

Jacques, a civil occasion to this trial, left him throughout the listening to on Tuesday. “I don’t assist the testimony of the defendants. They’re attempting to show themselves harmless, they know it is too massive what occurred, they are saying they’re sorry… However, they’re there, they are saying they will defend oneself. However from the second they participated, you needed to suppose forward. My daughter, I miss her. I’ll all the time miss her. She did not ask for something“, he denounces.

The accused will not be invited to talk till early November. 5 weeks will even be dedicated to the testimony of the civil events. 1,940 individuals had joined as civil events on Tuesday in the midst of the afternoon (in comparison with 865 earlier than the beginning of the trial), amongst whom round 300 want to testify.