The trial of the 2016 Nice truck attack has entered its last phase, with lawyers representing the 'parties civiles' or civil witnesses, presenting closing arguments for the next seven days.
Some 50 lawyers representing the 2,500 civil witnesses will attempt to show the impact of the attack on 14 July 2016, when Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove a lorry into the crowd celebrating Bastille Day at the beachfront Promenade des Anglais in 2016, killing 86 people and injury 400.
Witnesses have been taking the stand in the same room in Paris’ hall of justice and in the same way in which the hundreds of civil witnesses testified during the trial of 2015 Paris attacks earlier this year.
Lawyer for the National federation of victims attack victims Eric Morain told the court that the arguments will address the length of the attack, the victims’ “broken lives” caused by the attack, and the “lies” told by the eight defendants, who are accused of helping Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who was shot dead by police, and therefore not on trial.
“We will feed off of everything that was said by the victims” during the five previous weeks of testimony, said Sophie Hebert-Marchal, who coordinates a collective of lawyers from Nice.
(with wires)
