Sbe worthy and shut up! » How many times have the victims of the Nice attack heard this injunction, or words that resemble it, since July 14, 2016? Me Fabien Rajon leaves the question pending, this Wednesday, before the specially constituted Assize Court of Paris. On behalf of the Promenade des Anges association, the lawyer mentions “the victims’ struggle against oblivion, the veil of modesty, the passing of time, the frenzy of the present moment, and perhaps also the interests of a few.”
“Be dignified and shut up!” Despite everything, many victims chose to “don’t be silent”. Their testimonies took up three of the eight weeks of hearings, at the appeal trial which ends in a week. This Wednesday, it is their lawyers who carry the voice of the civil parties. Starting with associations, these ramparts against forgetting.
Collateral effects
“The victims sometimes have the impression that the entire nation has already forgotten this attack. And it’s unbearable! insists Me Océane Dufoix, for Mémorial des Anges. An association created in the name of the duty of memory. “To remember is to remember the worst and the best in order to learn from it, insists the lawyer. We must do more for victims. It is society that must support them, and not the other way around.”
There are 86 dead, 458 injured, 2,200 civil parties. And then there are the collateral effects of an attack: these couples who separate, these families who are torn apart. “We who were so linked, we were no longer together but side by side”sighs a victim, in the choral pleading read by Mes Chalus, Abier-Rougeron and Hebert-Marchal.
The effect of a bomb
Cancer, stroke, weight gain, memory loss, suicide attempt… The lawyers list the dizzying consequences of the ram truck attack. “Yes, the attack produces the same effects as a bomb”notes Me Antoine Casubolo-Ferro, for the AFVT (French association of victims of terrorism).
For the victims, these eight years were “a path punctuated by internal, legal and institutional battles, to change what is no longer acceptable. We want more than justice: we must serve. Our dead must serve”, concludes Me Virginie Le Roy, for Promenade des Anges. In the broadcast room in Nice, applause punctuates certain pleadings. They are soon restrained.
Security in the background
In this trial, all eyes are on the accused. But thoughts sail towards Marseille, where judges are investigating the security system on the evening of July 14. No question of forgetting for Célia Viale, co-president of Promenade des Anges. “Yes, this attack could have been avoided, insists Mr. Rajon on his behalf. Yes, the security system that evening was very insufficient. Yes, there were gaping flaws for which those responsible will have to answer.”
Not forgetting also means “ensuring a watchful eye for the respect of those who are no longer there”, says Me Méhana Mouhou, for Life for Nice. It also means supporting traumatized children, as Une Voix des Enfants focuses on. And remember, says Me Marie-Pierre Lazard, “that these accused participated in an attack which targeted children”.
