The Offended Dignity of Mass Murderers

The attacks in Paris on the night of Friday 13 November by gunmen and suicide bombers hit a concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants and bars, almost simultaneously - and left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded.  EPA/EPA/Reuters

"We are starting a trial today that has been described as historic, out of the ordinary. [It is] certainly historic because the facts, due to their dramatic intensity, are part of the national and international historic events of this century."

"The purpose of our court of assize is to examine the charges against each person and to draw all the penal consequences after having listened to each person."

"We must all keep this purpose in mind in order to stay on course."

Presiding judge Jean-Louis Périès 

 

"I gave up my job to become a fighter for the Islamic State."

"I've been treated like a dog for six years and I've never complained.You should treat us like human beings."

"I want to testify that there is no god except Allah and that Mohammad is his servant."

"My silence does not make me a criminal, it is my defence."

Salah Abdeslam, 31, charged with murder

 

"It's a provocation, we expected it and in actual fact we're expecting absolutely nothing."

"The assassins, these terrorists, thought they were firing into the crowd, into a mass of people. But it wasn't a mass — these were individuals who had a life, who loved, had hopes and expectations, and that we need to talk about at the trial. It's important."

"Our ability to be carefree is gone. The desire to go out, travel — all of that's gone. Even if we still do a number of things, our appetite for life has disappeared."

Dominique Kielemoes, whose son bled to death at one of the cafes 

 

"He has the intelligence of an empty ashtray ... he's extraordinarily vacuous."

"I asked him if he had read the Koran, and  he replied that he had researched it on the Internet."

Sven Mary, former Abdeslam lawyer

Salah Abdeslam, right, and Mohamed Abrini, centre, are shown on a CCTV camera at a petrol station in Ressons, France, on Nov. 11, 2015, just days before the deadly attacks. Both are among 20 people facing trial in France. (AFP/Getty Images)

The spectacle of a well-rehearsed strategy for members of an Islamic State cell in France to attack a number of popular sites in Paris simultaneously in a combined terrorist attack aiming to kill as many people as possible in the name of jihad drew the fascinated eyes of the world on France and Belgium, two western European countries with sizeable and long-time Muslim populations. The "Islamic State soldier" now on trial for murder, along with other enablers of the November 13, 2015 attack that led to the death of 130 people, remains steadfast and proud of his status as an Islamic State terrorist, but offended at the lack of proper respect given him throughout his prison stay.

While the civilized world gasped in disbelieving horror at the wholesale slaughter of people at the Bataclan concert hall, six restaurants and bars and a sports stadium, injuring hundreds aside from those killed outright from gun and bomb attacks, those charged for enablement and connection with the massacre feel they can only be judged by Allah, worldly courts of justice have no resonance in their world of jihad which impels them to strike at the unbelievers as an obligation and a message that Islam will prevail in conquering the world.

 

The Bataclan concert hall was evacuated following the attack   AFP

As the only surviving member of the group carrying out the attacks, Abdeslam is recognized as the singular individual whose responsibility for the violent carnage in lives lost and injured must be seen to receive the punishment merited by the act. The French-Moroccan man dressed in black, with a black face mask has never said much in his previous appearances. At the beginning of what is expected to be a protracted trial, perhaps the longest in French history, he deigned to speak, to shout over the judge in fact, complaining of the undignified treatment meted out to himself and his fellows standing trial.

He has no need to justify his actions; after all, the work of god is god's alone to judge and to applaud. He is deserving not of punishment but of recognition as a celebrity-soldier of Islamist jihad. The sole individual accused of murder, the other defendants accused of providing guns, cars or aiding the plan resulting in the attacks, responded to routine questions on name and profession, then remained silent. It was Abdeslam's time to shine, declaring the Shahada as though so doing required no details, no explanations. a exclamation of honour and pride.

"[Abdeslam's statement of himself as a soldier of Islamic State was] very violent."

"Some of my clients are not doing too well ... after hearing a statement that they took as a new, direct threat."

"It's going to be like that for nine months [projected length of the trial]."

Victor Edou, lawyer for eight Bataclan survivors

The attack was a victory by Islamic State as payback over France's involvement in the conflict that took place between the West and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ensconced in their caliphate, territories they took in Iraq and Syria. Those involved in the atrocities that took place in Paris had been urged by Islamic State to attack, and they did. There is an expected 1,800 plaintiffs and over 300 lawyers involved in the trial, described by Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti as an unprecedented judicial marathon.

Of the 20 defendants, eleven have been incarcerated awaiting trial, while six are to be tried in absentia, most of whom are believed to be dead. Found guilty, most face punishments of life imprisonment on conviction. Tight security was mounted around the Palais de Justice courthouse in central Paris. Specially-built reinforced glass partitions were installed in the courtroom. All who attend the court must pass through several checkpoints. It will be late May before a verdict is announced.

Police blocking off the road near Le Petit Cambodge   Getty Images