The next two terrorist attacks in France and the United States that shocked the world were tried separately, attracting global attention. The French Ministry of Justice held a hearing on September 8, 2015, in the terrorist attack on Paris on November 13, 2015. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the United States reopened the trial of the terrorists who attacked the United States in the incident.
The Paris terrorist attack, which shocked the world, has been investigated in 4 and a half years and across 19 countries, and the Paris court will hold its first hearing tomorrow. The investigation documents were stacked more than ten stories high, with 1,800 plaintiffs and 20 prosecutions, and the court even created a new venue to accommodate participants.
For the historic trial, the Paris court spent 7.5 million euros and spent a year and a half building a new hearing hall called Grands Procès, which can accommodate 550 people. The Paris court said it was "the largest trial hearing hall ever built" in France.
November 13, 2015, was a great trauma in French history, a day in Paris in a series of shootings and bombings, the most serious terrorist attack in France, killing 130 people and injuring more than 300 people; it is also the deadliest attack committed in Europe by the terrorist organization État islamique.
The procuratorate and police have established a total of 542 volumes of information for the case, including at least 47,000 investigation reports, and the height of the documents can reach 53 meters, which is quite more than ten stories high.
The scope, scale, length and number of people involved in the case are quite amazing, and the French media described it as a "trial of the century" and a "historic trial". There are 1,800 plaintiffs from victims and their families alone, dozens of whom will testify in court to recount the tragic and horrific memories of the night. The public hearing will also last for 140 days, and the whole process is expected to take 9 months.
France's largest criminal case of the century has 20 defendants. Nine of the 10 guerrilla terrorists were killed on the spot by the police that day and were not tried; Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving 31-year-old, became the number one public enemy in the trial.
Three other action plan leaders, including Najim Laachraoui, who made suicide bomber belts, and brother El Bakraoui, the head of operation logistics, were all killed in the Brussels suicide bombing that killed 32 people on March 22, 2019.
The remaining 19 defendants, all suspects who had provided logistical assistance in the attack, will be tried based on their prior knowledge of the plan, such as the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher terror attack trials.
The trial also presented an unprecedented challenge for the court, with nearly 330 lawyers in attendance in addition to the plaintiffs. In addition, 141 media interview cards have been issued, of which more than 50 are foreign media, and more than 100 reporters are expected to interview for hearings.
The newly created "Grand Trial" hearing hall is next to more than 10 subsidiary courts, equipped with live video broadcasts, and even live webcasts, allowing some plaintiffs to listen at home.
Some of the accused terrorists are expected to testify through online meetings by the end of March next year; the outcome of the trial is expected to be announced at the end of May next year.
On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, the United States will take five more defendants to court-martial
According to Agence France-Presse, the 20th anniversary of the 911 terrorist attack in the United States is about to expire, and the authorities will restart the relevant legal procedures tomorrow and once again send the 5 defendants suspected of planning this terrorist attack to a military court, hoping to end this protracted "trial of the century".
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four civil airliners, three of which crashed into twin towers at the World Trade Center in New York and the U.S. Department of Defense, while the other was ambushed by crew and crashed into Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.
The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base prison holds suspects arrested by the United States in the War on Terror, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani national who claims to be the head of the 9/11 attack, and four other defendants have been held here for nearly 15 years.
This will be the first time since the beginning of 2019 that five people will appear in a military court to stand trial.
After the case was suspended for 17 months due to the CORONAVIRUS pandemic, the proceedings may continue where they were interrupted. Defense lawyers have sought to claim that Mohammed and others were tortured continuously while in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and that most of the evidence in the government's possession was not eligible.
The new military judge, Air Force Colonel Matthew McCall, the eighth judge in the case, hinted on the 5th that the trial would start slowly and that a preliminary hearing focusing on his own qualifications would be held tomorrow. The War Crimes Tribunal allowed counsel on both sides to challenge the possible bias of the new judges.
The rest of the week is spent mostly meeting with military prosecutors and defense teams.
With dozens of motions requiring military prosecutors to present evidence they refuse to hand over, defense attorneys say the pre-trial phase could easily continue for another year, leaving hopes for both jury trials and verdicts elusive.
Mohammed and five others will appear in the heavily guarded Military Commission courtroom surrounded by barbed wire, with each defendant having his own defence team. Some of the families of the 9/11 victims and a large group of journalists will be in the audience. Five accused face charges of murder and terrorism before the War Crimes Tribunal and will not escape the death penalty if convicted.
Agence France-Presse said that US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on the 3rd, instructing the Ministry of Justice and relevant agencies to review, decrypt and publish the investigation documents on the 911 terrorist attack, and release them within 6 months.