Tuesday's session at the special criminal court brought an end to the questioning of the accused on their alleged roles in the preparation of the November 2015 terrorist attacks. There were two witnesses, Mohamed Abrini and Mohammed Bakkali. One talked a lot but had very little to say; the other exercised his right to remain silent.
Bakkali is the silent one. He is already serving 25 years for his part in the August 2015 Thalys train attack. He denies involvement and has appealed against that sentence.
On Tuesday, he rose to address the Paris tribunal briefly. "Some people have misunderstood my decision to remain silent," he said. "I just want to make it clear that it is not in any way a sign of disrespect for this court."
Bakkali is suspected of having helped the Paris terrorists to rent apartments and vehicles used in the preparation of the attacks.
As is customary, the questions were posed anyway, by the judges, the prosecution, the lawyers representing the families of victims, by the defence. Bakkali sat silently through it all, until the very end. Then he spoke.
"I had another trial where there was very little evidence," he explained. "But there was enough to send me to jail for a very long time. I never expected to be condemned like that for something I did not do."
Evasion and contradiction
In sharp contrast, Abrini talks a lot.
On Tuesday, he was contradictory, evasive, forgetful, incoherent. He has promised to be more explicit in the next phase of this trial, when the attacks are finally invoked in detail.
"We'll be expecting a lot next week," remarked court president Jean-Louis Périès.
Abrini is the man who is suspected of having accompanied the 10 terrorists who descended on Paris on 13 November 2015. He is also believed to have taken part in the Zaventem Airport attack in Brussels the following year.
He denies any involvement in renting either cars or hide-outs for the Paris attackers. He denies having accompanied co-accused Salah Abdeslam when he went to buy the chemicals used to make explosives. He denies having visited any of the hide-outs before 13 November 2015.
He does, however, admit to having met attacks coordinator Abdelhamid Abaaoud at the end of August, in a Brussels apartment.
He claims they spent an entire day chatting about one thing and another, without ever mentioning the upcoming attacks.
The trial continues.
