PARIS: Former French President Francois Hollande testifies Wednesday at the trial of 14 men accused of helping in the 2015 Daesh attacks on Paris.
Hollande was at France’s national stadium when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the gates on Nov. 13, 2015, the first in a series of attacks across Paris that would last for three more hours.
Gunmen struck cafes and bars in the city center, and the night culminated with a bloody siege at the Bataclan concert hall. In all, 130 people died in the attacks. Hollande ordered the final assault on the three remaining attackers inside the Bataclan.
All nine attackers died. Salah Abdeslam, the chief defendant in the trial, discarded a malfunctioning explosives vest and fled home to Belgium. His brother died in Paris trying to detonate his vest at a cafe.
Except for Abdeslam, most of the 14 men in the courtroom are accused of helping with logistics or transportation. Six others are being tried in absentia.