A pregnant woman who was seen dangling from a window at the Bataclan theatre during the horrifying Paris terror attacks in 2015 has spoken out for the first time in ten years.
Ten years ago, to the day, ISIS fanatics carried out one of the deadliest attacks in France’s history, targeting cultural institutions across Paris, killing more than 130 people and injuring more than 400.
Terrorists attacked several busy restaurants, as well as the Stade de France and the Bataclan Theatre, where the Eagles of Death Metal rock band were playing that night.
It was at the theatre in the 11th arrondissement of Paris where Charlotte was filmed clinging to a window ledge for her life.
In footage seen around the world, the then-pregnant woman was heard pleading: ‘Help, help, I’m pregnant, catch me if I fall.’
Sébastien Besatti, also clinging to the facade of the building from a window ledge, decided to risk his own life to help her, scrambling back inside the Bataclan to haul her indoors.
Charlotte, who has refused to give her last name, told Le Monde that she refused to allow the terror attack to define her life, but said Sébastien was now part of her life: ‘The Bataclan is not part of my life, but Sébastien is’.
Sébastien, meanwhile, told the newspaper: ‘We’re complete opposites, but she’s my sister in arms’.
He said that he helped her up as he was ‘in a better position than she was’.
The former journalist added: ‘I could have held on and stayed hanging outside, but when I heard her, I decided to step in’.
But he also admitted: ‘The act of saving her, I did it for myself. I needed it. It reconnected me with my emotions. I began to understand that happiness lies in sharing’.
Sébastien ended up becoming one of many hostages who were taken by the terrorists over an hour after the attack began.
Cops who had entered the building heard him speak. He had been made a spokesman by the terrorists and told the police that there were two gunmen wearing explosive vests holding around 20 of them captive.
He shouted from the other side of the door and asked the officers to stop, saying the captives would be killed or beheaded if the police advanced.
‘They gave us their sermon, their speech, the why they were there,’ Sébastien told RTL radio, describing what the terrorists said.
‘They explained to us that the bombs being dropped on Syria were the reason why they were there. They said they were doing to us Westerners what we were doing to them over there.’
The hostages were ordered to keep guard at the windows, telling the police to stay away.
They were also used as ‘human shields’ and forced to sit by the door, where French cops might have inadvertently shot them.
A tense negotiation began between the gunmen and the police, during which officers were passed a mobile number and spoke to the attackers five times in what would prove to be a futile attempt at diplomacy.
Charlotte and Sébastien revealed they properly met each other a month after the attack, following her husband’s appeal for the identity of the man who had saved his wife.
Sébastien revealed that he didn’t immediately recognise Charlotte, but she had recognised him. She told the newspaper that he ‘had a huge smile, completely out of step with what had happened’.
As soon as they met, they immediately began catching up with each other: ‘I took the opportunity to make her my confidante. She became a close friend’.
Charlotte said she was deeply traumatised by the attack, and took herself to a psychiatric clinic at Sainte-Anne Hospital the day after.
She said she was plagued by nightmares and panic attacks for months after, and that taking the Metro or being in a crowd was next to impossible.
Charlotte also said she refused to appear in court during the trial of the terrorists, only once attending a hearing on the day Sébastien and other victims recounted what happened to them.
The lingering trauma lead her to her making sure to get away with her daughter, born seven months after the attack, her husband and her closest friends every November 13, the anniversary of the attack.
The three gunmen who stormed the Bataclan were identified as Foued Mohamed-Aggad, 23, Omar Ismaïl Mostefai, 29 and Samy Amimour, 28.
All three died during the attack, either by blowing themselves up or gunshots which triggered the blasts. Mostefai, of Algerian origin, was the first to be identified after his severed finger was reportedly found at the site of the Bataclan theatre by French authorities.
Their names appeared in files leaked from the Islamic State militant group, where roughly 22,000 fighters were reportedly identified, with one file for each recruit listing a name, address and other information, according to German media reports.
In 2021, what was then the biggest criminal trial in French history began, to prosecute those guilty of committing the worst terror attack the country has ever seen.
Some 20 men, all suspected Islamic State terrorists, were accused of killing 130 people and injuring hundreds in a special court built to host the ten-month trial.
Five judges heard testimony from over 2,000 witnesses and analysed more than a million pages of evidence.
Fourteen were tried in person and another six in-absentia, presumed either dead or missing whilst fighting for ISIS in Syria.
Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving attacker from the group, was sentenced to a rare full-life sentence.
The court found that his explosives vest malfunctioned, dismissing his argument that he abandoned the vest because he decided not to follow through with his part of the attack after a change of heart.
Of the defendants besides Abdeslam, 18 were given various terrorism-related convictions, and one was convicted on a lesser fraud charge. Others were given life sentences, while some walked free after being sentenced to time served.
