Paris attacks trial again suspended as second suspect gets Covid

The trial of the 20 men suspected of complicity in the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris has been suspended once again after a second suspect tested positive for Covid-19. Hearings are now expected to resume on 25 January. 

Eleven of the 14 accused who are facing trial spend their days in close proximity to one another, in a security enclosure. AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ

Ali El Haddad Asufi, accused of helping prepare the massacres which cost the lives of 131 people, began showing symptoms at last Friday's court session.

He tested positive on Saturday.

Tribunal president Jean-Louis Périès has thus decided that this entire week will be lost, since a new test will not be carried out until Friday.

Provided there are no other health problems among the accused, the trial will resume on Tuesday with the hearing of testimony from Muhammad Usman on the period covering his voyage from his native Pakistan, through the Syrian warzone and the ranks of Islamic State, to his eventual arrest in Austria..

Evidence from Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the 10 assailants who targeted the Stade de France, the Bataclan concert hall and several bars and restaurants in the capital in November 2015, will now begin on 9 February, according to a new calendar issued by the court..

Abdeslam himself tested positive for Covid at the end of December, delaying the hearings for several days.