On Tuesday, defence council Xavier Nogueras used the language of the accused against the language of the court. It was a remarkable performance.
Xavier Nogueras is the superstar of the defence benches.
He is flamboyant, instantly identifiable by his prematurely grey hair, his peretrating blue eyes. He is clearly at home in the special criminal court where, for the past decade, he has made a name for himself, defending clients whom nobody else would touch, sometimes with remarkable success.
He is intelligent, masterful, at ease and, occasionally, very funny.
He was helped enormously on Tuesday by the patient work of his co-defender, Negar Haeri, whose presentation of the facts cleared the way for her colleague's impressionism.
Late on Tuesday afternoon, after Haeri's minute dissection of the prosecution case, Xavier Nogueras rose to continue the defence of Mohammed Amri, who faces charges which could see him jailed for the next 20 years.
"During the break this afternoon," Nogueras told the court, "I was fidgeting, nervous, and Amri said, 'Relax. Whatever happens, I'll be proud of you'. That touched me.
"It's very difficult to do this, because the brilliant young colleagues who have gone before me have already said it all.
"I'll try to say it differently."
Barely glancing at his scribbled notes, this remarkable man who is, incidentally, an accomplished musician, launched into a 27-minute virtuoso solo.
"I have to begin with a thought for the victims. Those who came, those who chose not to come. Those who can't come, ever. In all sincerity and dignity . . ."
Cocktail party composure
Xavier Nogueras praised his colleagues on the defence benches, their opponents on the little stage reserved for the prosecution.
"You have a difficult job," he told the three magistrates who have structured this case against the 14 accused, including his client. "So do we."
With the confident body language of a man surrounded by friends, telling a well-rehearsed joke at a cocktail party, Nogueras glanced from Mohammed Amri, to the tribunal, to the crowded public benches, to the prosecution.
He smilingly upbraided senior magistrate Camille Hennetier for sitting with her arms crossed, a gesture of closure, of rejection perhaps? And the ice queen, like a brilliant schoolgirl caught smoking, immediately changed her position. No one else has spoken to her like that.
"You, the prosecutors, have shown us the quantum physics of the law. It's a terribly technical business. And we are all here to try to understand those technicalities in human terms. Not easy. Especially since the law is constantly changing.
"We have, for example, seen the judicial creation of a definition of radicalisation. It is based on the concept of 'finality,' the question of what a suspect could reasonably be assumed to know of the criminal outcome of his ideological adherence. It's a tough question.
"And 'the desubjectivisation of the aggravating circumstances'? What can that mean to a man who loves cars and smoking spliffs?
"I have a theory that part of the problem with the law is that we speak an incomprehensible language. And that we use that language to stigmatise as criminals those who don't understand us. It's a form of social determinism."
'My client is a humanitarian worker'
Then, after nearly 20 minutes without a mention of the man he is defending, with no change in tone, Xavier Nogueras reminded the court that Mohammed Amri worked for the social services in Brussels before his arrest, driving an ambulance to deliver food and blankets to those wintering out on the streets of the Belgian capital.
"That is a job for a humanitarian. How could a man engaged in such an effort have any time for the murderous ideology of jihad?"
Of his client's failure to alert the police to the presence of Salah Abdeslam as they drove back to Brussels in the wake of the attacks, Xavier Nogueras asked us to imagine the mental state of a man who had worked half the night, driven 400 kms, smoked a ton of shit, and was in deep shock.
"Imagine the atmosphere in that car. He did nothing because he could do nothing. He faced either arrest or being shot dead. He was terrified. It's as simple as that."
Nogueras closed the blue folder containing his tattered notes before concluding with an address to the tribunal.
He had promised to say it differently. He did, right to the end.
A plea for acquittment
"In the name of love and humanity, I ask you to consider the fate of Mohammed Amri. Think about the possibility of acquitting him.
"Above all else, as you deliberate on this case, think of the summer."
Not a nuance of this remarkable address will have escaped court president Jean-Louis Périès and the professional judges who surround him.
Don't blame my client for his occasional inarticulacy. Our language is not his, and it is not straightforward. Accept that the law on terrorist-related offences is in constant and contradictory evolution. Beware your own social prejudices.
Think how hot it will be in prison as we embark on the summer season of heat waves. "Set my client free."
The trial continues.
