(Radio France) This has been a special week at the November 2015 terror trial, as the three state prosecutors prepared the ground for their demands for punishment, delivered on Friday. The French newspapers have been united in their praise of the prosecution team. But it was a far from flawless performance.
“It is difficult for us, who live in a secular society, to understand absolute conviction,” chief prosecuting magistrate Camille Hennetier told the court in her final summing-up.
“When fanaticism has infected a spirit, the disease is practically incurable. What can you say to someone who tells you that he would rather obey God than man, and that he is sure of entering heaven if he slits your throat?”
Despite the chillingly contemporary resonance, that last sentence is Voltaire, taken word-for-word from his 1764 Dictionary of Philosophy, under the entry for “Fanaticism.”
