(Radio France) The official aim of Friday’s session of the Paris attacks trial was to hear evidence from Belgian police investigators on the backgrounds of two of the dead terrorists and one other suspect. The hearing was, however, marked by the refusal of five prisoners to appear before the court, and by a series of angry clashes between the tribunal in Paris and the police witnesses in Brussels.
Four prisoners … Salah Abdeslam, Mohamed Abrini, Sofien Ayari and Osama Krayem … once again refused to take their places in the security enclosure reserved for the accused. A fifth suspect, Mohamed Bakkali, joined the ranks of the absent at the opening of Friday’s hearing.
The men say they are protesting a decision by the court to allow Belgian police witnesses to testify anonymously and from Brussels.
The trial continued in their absence.
