Barbie Trial -- Day 12 -- Victims accuse Barbie

Jean Gay - does not appear in person, deposition is read by the bailiff re: Resistance, arrest, interrogation, torture, and deportation to Neuengamme. Klaus Barbie enters the courtroom at 18:48:14, visible at upper screen right. He sits next to two interpreters: Margit Lipsker and Martine Billaud. 18:48:35 Lucien Margaine says "One cannot be mistaken. Look at that grin. You cannot forget; it is not a sane man." Barbie reads a short statement asserting that he is being tried illegally and that he was brought into court today by force: "Because I am judicially absent, I will not reply." Cerdini then asks Margaine if Barbie was the man who told him when he was deported: "Where you are going you will not be coming back!" Margaine says, "Yes, and with that same air he has right now." Barbie repeats, "I have nothing to say." "I've got a few questions to ask him," Margaine then says staring at Barbie sitting in a glass-enclosed box near the witness stand. "Is this the courageous SS officer we knew? What a coward!" The courtroom bursts into applause and Cerdini calls for silence. 18:54:30 Mario Blardone shakes before rising to confront and identify Barbie. "I recognize him formally. I want to look him in the eyes. His eyes, his mouth." He points his finger and takes several steps toward Barbie shouting: "Look at him! An SS stripped of his whip and machine gun! He's cowardice itself! You understand French. I know you do. Cowardice. Cowardice!" Afterward in his seat, Blardone buries his face in his hands. Barbie declines to answer the president's questions about the accusations being made against him, muttering "No." 19:00:00 Robert Clor says "I recognize him - he is false to the core." 19:02:20 Vincent Planque says "In my conscience it is him. It's he who captured me and tortured me - beatings, setting dogs on me, the bath torture. There's no doubt about it." 19:04:05 Raymonde Guyon says "I recognize him absolutely. That man! It was he who interrogated me, tortured me. It was he who told me my husband would be shot - and he was." Barbie just shakes his head and says nothing. 19:08:42 Court adjourned for the day.