The trial is scheduled for eight months, twenty defendants, 1,800 civil parties, almost 300 lawyers. On September 8, probably the biggest trial in the history of French justice begins in Paris. Six years after the November 13 attacks that killed 131 people in Paris and Saint-Denis, the trial should provide an opportunity to retrace, minute by minute, the lethal track of the three commandos of the Islamic State to blame for the attacks. Among the many testimonies that will take place, franceinfo was interested in Sonia’s. In the first days after the attacks, she was called in to participate in the investigation, despite her illness.
On November 13, 2015, she was a guest of a friend, Hasna Aït Boulahcen. During the France-Germany international soccer match, the first reports of explosions and shootings came in. Hasna Aït Boulahcen bursts into peals of laughter and cheers: “They are all criminals, they will all die. Two days later, on November 15, Hasna asks Sonia to drive her to Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis). The young woman explained to her that she had to meet “a cousin” there. This was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the organisers of the November 13 attacks, who was in fact a cousin of Hasna.
When she arrived, Hasna Aït Boulahcen fell into his arms and called out her cousin’s name. Sonia then understood who her friend’s cousin was. She can even recognise the terrorists’ weapons. “His explosive belt was clearly visible, we couldn’t miss it,” she tells franceinfo. Hasna and her dangerous cousin ordered Sonia to keep quiet or she would be killed. However, Sonia decides to talk to the police: “I am going because I tell myself that even if I have to die, other people should not die. Her testimony had helped to find Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the cousin and one of the assassins of November 13, a few days later.
Since then, Sonia’s life has changed. Change of name, change of address, change of job, etc. Sonia’s life has been turned upside down since then: Name, address, profession etc. has changed: the young woman is threatened by Hasna Aït Boulahcen’s relatives and is in danger. This is all the more true as her real name has been leaked several times during the trial, exposing her even more. Nevertheless, she will appear as a witness in court on September 8: “We have to show them that we are not afraid,” she explains.