Distressed Paris attacks survivors tell court of enduring pain and trauma

The November 2015 terror trial moved into new emotional territory on Tuesday, with the next five weeks dedicated to testimony from the so-called civil witnesses – those who were injured physically or psychologically, or who lost friends and relatives in the attacks.

French Gendarmes officers stand guard outside the Palais de Justice of Paris - Paris's courthouse. AFP - THOMAS COEX

There were tears. There were long pauses during which witnesses struggled to find the strength to continue. One man, overcome, had to leave the courtroom in the middle of his testimony.

There was anger against the attackers and their "ignorant" misunderstanding of Islam, and also against the failure of compassion by the military bosses who failed to help deeply traumatised members of the Republican Guard cavalry unit.

Those on duty at the Stade de France sports stadium on the night of the attacks were left to deal with their problems alone.

Then there was anger against a lumbering administration that has frequently failed victims by insisting that the rules outweighed the obligations of human compassion.

There was also love

Sophie Dias remembered her father, Manuel, fatally injured by shrapnel from a suicide vest at the Stade de France, as a loving and devoted father.

"My life has never been the same," she said with terrible finality.

Bilal Bley Mokono, former government bodyguard, a hugely powerful presence, even in the wheelchair to which his injuries have confined him, remembered his tears as he embraced his 13-year-old son, momentarily lost in the confusion of the first explosion at the Stade de France.

"He put his arms around me. He said 'It's alright, Papa. we're safe.' He was 13, a child, and he was consoling me. I realised he had never seen me cry before."

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Mokono had words for Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terror squads who killed 130 people in Paris on 13 November 2015.

Turning to face the accused in his corner of the defendants' box, speaking without anger, Mokono spoke of the Muslim faith he shares with Abdeslam.

"The first thing we learned," he quietly said, "was not to kill, certainly not women and children."

'Not Islam'

Another Muslim witness, the Egyptian Walid Abdelrazzak Youssef, seriously injured in the first blast at the Stade de France, was also critical of the jihadists' interpretation of their religion.

Abdelrazzak's lawyer read two statements made to the court by Abdeslam, in which the suspect claimed that the attackers had acted as "authentic Muslims", motivated by a desire to avenge those civilians killed by French air raids in Syria.

"Only a man who is ignorant of the true nature of Islam could say such a thing," Abdelrazzak said in response to the readings.

"These people have invented a religion of their own. They are a shame to real Muslims."