Verdict in Paris terrorist attack trial
On Wednesday evening the verdict was pronounced in the almost ten-month trial of the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015. The sole survivor of the terrorist commando received the maximum sentence: life in prison without the possibility of early release and only a slim chance of parole after 30 years. Were the high expectations for the proceedings fulfilled?
An exemplary trial
Le Soir praises the French judiciary:
“In this France that is often said to be fractured, and where the recent elections have revealed the violence of the political climate - and with it a certain decay of the republican ideal - the trial on the attacks, by contrast, has demonstrated the outstanding maturity of the judiciary and all those associated with it. A few months before the trial on the Nice attack, which will be held at the same venue, and above all before the Belgian trial for which it will inevitably serve as a reference, it is a model that deserves to be carefully considered.”
Not group therapy
France's expectations for the trial were too high, writes Le Temps:
“Was it not the outcome of the trial but the expectations that were misguided? Expectations that were partly created by the media, partly by all the PR, partly by politicians, and partly by the Americanisation of our notion of trials. Ultimately, the primary purpose of a trial is to convict the accused, to apply the law serenely. And that is what has happened, without suspense or passion. The collective therapy, on the other hand, must be sought elsewhere, at least in part.”