Survivors and relatives of the victims have said they were impatient to hear testimony that might help them better understand what happened and why it did so. The court’s top judge, Jean-Louis Peries, said it was a historic trial.Īl Jazeera’s Natacha Butler, reporting from Paris, said hundreds of witnesses are expected to testify over the course of the trial, including survivors. The trial will last nine months, with about 1,800 plaintiffs and more than 300 lawyers taking part in what Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti has called an unprecedented judicial marathon. Responsibility for the attacks was claimed by ISIL, which had urged followers to attack France over its involvement in the fight against the group in Iraq and Syria.

The other suspects are accused of helping to provide guns and cars or playing a role in organising the attacks, in which hundreds were also wounded.

Asked what his profession was, the 31-year-old removed his face mask and told the high court Paris court defiantly: “I gave up my job to become an Islamic State (ISIL) soldier.” Salah Abdeslam’s lawyer Olivia Ronen at the courtroom on the first day of the trial Key defendant Salah Abdeslam is believed to be the only surviving member of the group of nine gunmen and suicide bombers who struck within minutes of each other at several locations – including restaurants and bars, the Bataclan concert hall and a sports stadium – on November 13, 2015.Ībdeslam appeared in court dressed in black and wearing a black face mask, obligatory because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The long-awaited trial of 20 men charged over the 2015 coordinated attacks that killed 130 people across Paris has opened in the French capital.

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