the historic trial of a night of terror has opened
StoryAt 9:16 p.m. on Friday, November 13, 2015, Paris plunged into horror. Six years later, the trial of the deadliest attacks to hit France is expected to last nearly nine months.
Friday, November 13, 2015. It’s match day in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). France receives Germany, the reigning world champion. In the presidential box, François Hollande took his place alongside the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The Stade de France is full. On the square, Manuel Colaço Dias, a retired Champagne bus driver, sits down at the outdoor refreshment bar in front of the Events restaurant to have a cup of coffee. He has just led a group of supporters from Reims who came to watch the match. His wife calls him. He tells her that everything is fine. He will return after the final whistle. It is 9:10 p.m.
The game started a quarter of an hour ago when a detonation held up. The public welcomes this firecracker, a little noisier than the others, with olé. In front of the stadium, between gate D and the bay window of the Events, an Iraqi jihadist has just triggered his explosive belt. It is 9:16 pm Manuel Colaço Dias, 63, collapses to the ground. This Portuguese pensioner who fled the Salazarist dictatorship at the age of 18 to settle in France is the first of the 130 victims of the attacks of November 13, 2015, including the opening report Wednesday September 8 in front of the court of ‘Paris special meeting.
Four minutes later, a second explosion resonates in the stadium. Defender Patrice Evra has the ball in his feet. Son’s face tenses up. He made a blind pass back, producing the origin of the detonation. In front of Gate H, a second Iraqi jihadist – arrived with his accomplice in Europe a few weeks earlier, from Syria – activated his vest filled with acetone peroxide (TAP) and nuts. The explosion sprayed fragments of his body several meters away. The suicide bomber does not kill anybody, but gravely blesses an Egyptian national.
The killer with the “orange baskets”
9:24 p.m., in the center of Paris. A black Seat registered in Belgium stops in front of the bar Le Carillon and the restaurant Le Petit Cambodge, in the 10e arrondissement. Three men armed with assault rifles on their way down. They strafe the customers seated on the terrace, then return to their vehicle. In less than two minutes, thirteen clients were killed, including ten young women, and dozens injured. The victims are students, doctor or architect, French, Swedish, American, German, Moroccan and Malian. One hundred and thirty ammunition jonchen the sidewalk.
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