There was another shift in the atmosphere at the special criminal court in Paris this week. The televised evidence from anonymous Belgian police investigators came to an end, and real witnesses once again appeared at the bar. They were no ordinary witnesses.
There were four of them. Unlike the police officers who came with coded identifiers such as "441-157-616", these people had names.
Yassine Abaaoud, Azdyne and Maya Amimour, Mohamed Mostefaï, to be precise.
To everyone with an interest in this case, those are significant names.
They are, respectively, the brother of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, commander of the Paris terrorists; the father and sister of Samy Amimour, one of the Bataclan killers; the father of Ismaël Omar Mostefaï, another of the Bataclan trio.
As the court president several times assured each one of them, "you are not accused of anything before this court. You are here as a witness. We are just trying to understand."
Which is strictly true. But it didn't make the exercise any easier.
Questions as accusations
Each of the four was subjected to a relentless barrage of questions intended to reveal the complicity of the witness in the drift of their relative towards murderous extremism.
It was not pleasant to watch.
While Maya Amimour wept openly, saying she was ashamed to carry the family name disgraced by her brother, that she had no words to express the depth of her compassion for the families of the victims, Mohamed Abrini surged to the front of the prisoners' enclosure, yelling like a madman.
"Stop this! Leave her alone," he roared. "These people are innocent. They did nothing. They shouldn't be ashamed of their names. You are turning the witnesses into criminals!"
It took the court president several minutes and the threat of expulsion to calm the prisoner down.
"The witnesses can testify for themselves, as they see fit," Jean-Louis Périès reminded the accused. "And it I who decide what is appropriate in this court, not you, Mr Abrini."
The trial continues.
