For victims of November 13, dialogue in order to achieve justice

On a scorching day in August 2023, Georges Salines could have wandered his tired gaze over the gray-blue horizon of the North Sea. However, it is into the dark eyes of Mohamed Abrini that this bereaved father has chosen to look into. A simple table separates him from the terrorist sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the preparation of the attacks of November 13, 2015. In a Belgian prison, no guard surrounds them. Only two mediators, who will remain silent during the three hours of face-to-face contact.

Lola was 28 years old when she was murdered at the Bataclan. Mohamed Abrini, just two more. Since that nightmarish night, a question had haunted Georges Salines: how could such young men have wanted to savagely eliminate other young people?

Did he get a response? The content of his long exchange with the prisoner will remain secret. “That didn’t console me,” he confided simply two years later, while fiddling with the sugar packet in his coffee. I still feel sorry for my daughter, deprived of moments with us. But I had the feeling that this man was sincere and that he understood the extent of his act.”

A voluntary commitment

This approach undertaken by Georges Salines is part of restorative justice, a practice allowing a dialogue to be established between a victim and a convicted criminal. The objective is twofold: to help the first to rebuild itself and to allow the second to become more aware of what he has committed. Nothing else is at stake: neither compensation nor reduction of sentence. It is a voluntary commitment, the preparation of which extends over several months, each of the interlocutors having at least three prior interviews with a mediator. Subsidized by the Ministry of Justice, this additional criminal justice measure has been included in French law since 2014. More than ten years later, its implementation remains rare. Of the 2,934 direct and indirect victims* of the attacks of November 13, 2015, those who, like Georges Salines, asked to meet one of the convicted terrorists can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Even marginal, this initiative questions a society divided on its conception of justice, judged too lax by some and too repressive by others. Starting a dialogue with criminals, sometimes considered evil incarnate, for many of our fellow citizens, the idea is difficult to imagine.

However, according to many victims involved in this process, the direct exchange allows a form of individual recognition, which, even if one can testify at the bar, is often lost in trials where there are many civil parties. “I want to show the assassins that Kalashnikov shots are not like in video games,” explains Gaëlle, whose jaw and cheek were mutilated at the Bataclan. If it can dissuade another person from taking action…”

Even today, the smell of blood at the butcher’s shop, a ringing telephone, the beep of the oven and a host of other details take her back to that night during which her companion died. Last October, after her fifty-sixth operation in ten years, she met a repentant jihadist to try to understand her dark side and move forward. Among those around him, his decision is not unanimous. “It’s nonsense,” says his son who, like many, considers that these ultra-dangerous convicts know very well how to hide their real intentions.

A difficult implementation

“There are many obstacles,” sighs Christiane Legrand, president of the French Institute for Restorative Justice. You really have to fight to reach a meeting.” Beyond the incomprehension of relatives, all it takes is the refusal of a prosecutor, a prison director or an official at another level of the administration for a procedure to be canceled… In a context where the response to terrorism remains dominated by a security logic, restorative justice is struggling to find its place. Despite everything, Georges Salines plans to go further. He hopes to one day be able to look into those of Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the jihadist commandos of November 13. It will undoubtedly take several more summers to obtain the necessary agreements. And the company? Will she be ready for this?

* According to the Guarantee Fund for Victims of Acts of Terrorism and Other Offenses.