In a Paris courtroom this week, lawyer Claire Josserand-Schmidt stood face to face with Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving suspect from a gang of violent jihadists who killed 130 people in Paris six years ago.
As a lawyer for the victims and their families, her job was to cross-examine France’s most high-profile defendant.
“It would have been much easier for everyone to have to deal with a heartless monster,” she told the BBC. “The human being is more subtle. I didn’t want to have a confrontation with him. The point is to learn as much as possible.”
