It’s been almost six years since Paris suffered the now infamous 2015 terrorist attacks, targeting several different locations in the city. With 130 casualties, and hundreds more injured, November 13, 2015, became a day associated with nation-wide grief. Shooters unloaded at the Stade de France during a soccer match, then drove through the streets of Paris shooting at cafes and bars, before hitting their largest target: the Bataclan music venue, where a concert was taking place.
Twenty people, all acting in the name of the Islamic State, were charged in assisting with the attack, but only one of the gunmen survived to face trial, a Belgian-born French citizen named Salah Abdeslam. Six of his co-conspirators will be tried in absentia, in a trial that began today in a custom-built court room in France’s highest court of law. Around 1,800 victims, represented by 300 lawyers, will contribute their testimony, most of them direct survivors of the attacks.
Tensions are understandably high in Paris, as thousands grapple with a past not yet forgotten. But at the very least, this might offer some small morsel of closure to the victims and their families.
