Son of Moroccan Victim Testifies in Nice Terror Attack Trial

The testimonies of families devastated by the attack on July 14 in Nice are succeeding each other at the bar of the Paris courthouse for several weeks. Mathieu Bousfiha, 27, shared his story on Friday. He was on the Promenade des Anglais the evening of the attack with his father Adib, his mother Céline and his little sister. His two parents were physically disabled. The mother had been hemiplegic on the right side for years and the father was affected by myopathy and moved around in a wheelchair, he told the court.

The family, having left Beaucroissant in Isère to spend a few days in Nice, went to the Promenade des Anglais to admire the fireworks. As they were heading towards the parking lot where their car was parked, his sister spotted the truck heading straight for them. "In an automatic reflex, I pushed my mother to one side, my sister to the other and I jumped to the side of my sister... I have time to turn around and the truck hits my father. I still have the sound of the metallic impact on my father’s wheelchair," he recounts.

After the passage of the truck, Mathieu and his sister find their father’s body. "I’ll spare you the state," he tells the court. They then look for their mother in vain, before deciding to take shelter. They are welcomed by a young couple. Since the loss of his parents, Mathieu has completely changed. At only 21 years old at the time of the events, he had to carry out a series of administrative formalities related to the death of his two parents, despite the pain of their loss under such tragic conditions.

The young man organized the funeral of his father in Morocco and the repatriation of his mother’s body to Lyon for her burial alongside his father. He also assists his 18-year-old sister who has to start her preparatory class in Orléans. But today, their relationship has completely deteriorated, to the point where they no longer speak to each other and no longer see each other. Mathieu continues his engineering studies to obtain his diploma. But what to do after? The young man "doesn’t care", marked for life by the loss of his parents.