The trial of 20 people accused of the Islamic State attacks in Paris: Only Abdeslam is charged with murder

The trial of 20 people accused of the 2015 Islamic State attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people and injured hundreds, begins today in a secure Paris complex in a 13th-century courthouse.

Nine gunmen and suicide bombers carried out near-simultaneous attacks on France's national football stadium, the Bataclan concert hall and restaurants and cafes in Paris on November 13, 2015.

It is expected that the courtroom will be filled with survivors of those attacks as well as relatives and friends of the victims.

The courtroom was designed to accommodate 1.800 convicts and 350 lawyers.

The sole survivor of the extremist cell from that night, Salah Abdeslam, is the key defendant on trial for France's worst attack since World War II.

He is the only one of the 20 defendants charged with murder.

The same Islamic State network organized attacks in Brussels a few months later, when another 32 people were killed.

20 men have been charged, but six are being tried in absentia.

Abdeslam, who abandoned his rental car in northern Paris and discarded his defunct explosives belt before fleeing home to Brussels, has refused to speak to investigators, and he has answers to many outstanding questions about the attack and the people who planned it , in Europe and abroad.

The modern courthouse was built within the complex of the 13th-century Palace of Justice in Paris, where Marie Antoinette and Emile Zola, among others, were tried.

For the first time, victims can have a secure audio connection and listen to the trial from home if they wish with a 30-minute delay.

The trial is expected to last nine months.

September will be devoted to the presentation of police and forensic evidence, and in October the victims' statements are expected.

From November to December, officials will testify, including French President Francois Hollande, as well as relatives of the attackers. Abdeslam will be questioned multiple times.

The court proceedings will not be televised or later released to the public, but will be recorded for archival purposes.

Video recording is only allowed in a few cases in France that are considered historic, including last year's trial over the 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris and a kosher supermarket.