Eight suspects will be tried on Monday over the July 2016 attack in the Mediterranean city of Nice, in which a radical Islamist killed 86 people by driving a truck into thousands of locals and tourists celebrating France’s National Day.
Attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, was shot dead by police after the killing spree lasted more than four minutes as he zigzagged down the Promenade des Anglais seawall, destroying lives.
The seven men and one woman being tried in Paris are charged with crimes ranging from knowing his intentions to providing logistical support and supplying weapons.
Only one suspect, Ramzi Kevin Arefa, faces the maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted as a repeat offender. The others face between five and 20 years in prison.
The trial, set to last until mid-December, is the latest trial into the Islamist attacks that have plagued France since 2015.
A Paris court on June 29 found all 20 suspects guilty in the trial over the November 2015 attacks in the French capital that killed 130 people.
The extremist group Islamic State (IS) was quick to claim the Nice attack, although French investigators found no link between the attacker and the jihadist organization, which at the time controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria.
– ‘Frustration’ –
While Lahouaiej-Bouhlel cannot now be brought to justice, like the November 2015 case, the trial marks an enormously important moment for survivors and victims’ families.
“It’s better not to expect much from it, so as not to be disappointed. Above all, we want a good process for everyone,” said Bruno Razafitrimo, who lost his wife Mino in the tragedy and is now raising their two sons alone.
Of the defendants, three suspects are charged with involvement in a terrorist conspiracy and the other five with involvement in a criminal conspiracy and violation of gun laws.
The attack was the second deadliest post-war atrocity on French soil, after the November 2015 Paris attacks.
Six years after the attack, “the fact that the only perpetrator isn’t there is going to create frustration. There will be a lot of questions that nobody can answer,” said Eric Morain, an attorney for a victims’ association involved in the study.
“We’re trying to prepare them for the fact that the sentences may not reflect their suffering,” said Antoine Casubolo-Ferro, another lawyer for the victims.
In the November 2015 attack process, only one member of the attack team, Salah Abdeslam, was not killed during or after the attacks.
On the night of the attacks, he removed his suicide belt and claimed to have changed his mind about the attack. But he was sentenced to life in prison with only a tiny chance of parole after 30 years, the harshest sentence under French law.
– ‘wound will never heal’ –
Seven of the accused will appear in court, with one suspect, Brahim Tritrou, tried in absentia after fleeing judicial surveillance in Tunisia, where he is now believed to be in custody.
Only three of the accused are currently in custody, one in connection with another case. The accused are a mixture of Tunisians, French-Tunisians and also Albanians.
The trial will take place in the historic Palais de Justice in central Paris, in the same purpose-built courthouse that hosted the hearings into the November 2015 attacks.
About 30,000 people gathered on the seafront promenade to see fireworks celebrating the annual French National Day on July 14, when Lahouaiej-Bouhlel began his murderous killing spree.
The attack left lasting scars on the city of Nice, a epitome of seaside urban glamor on France’s Côte d’Azur but which, like neighboring Mediterranean cities of Toulon and Marseille, has experienced rising immigration and social tensions.
Nice was hit again in October 2020 when a radical Tunisian Islamist stabbed three people in a church.
The right-wing mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said: “This wound will never heal, no matter how the trial ends. This wound is too deep.”
According to French and Tunisian press reports, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s body was transferred to Tunisia in 2017 and buried in his hometown of M’saken, south of Tunis. This has never been confirmed by the Tunisian authorities.
