Victims, families and elected officials commemorated Saturday in Strasbourg, in the presence of Prime Minister Jean Castex, the attack on the Christmas market which left 5 dead on December 11, 2018 and many injured. “Three years have passed, we need a lot of strength and courage after the attack to overcome the trauma,” said Martine Winterberger, injured in the attack, reading a text written collectively by the victims and their families, in the introduction of this ceremony closed to the public.
“We still have to find the path to resilience”
“As opposed to hatred, we have chosen life, peace, hope, fraternity and sharing. We still have to find the path to resilience in order to one day be able to close” the trauma, a- she added. Prime Minister Jean Castex and the environmentalist mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, then placed white roses around the commemorative stele erected after the attack. They were imitated by the Alsatian minister Brigitte Klinkert and the prefect of Bas-Rhin Josiane Chevalier, as well as by the victims injured in the attack, present in large numbers, and members of their families.
The ceremony ended with a minute of silence, without speaking from elected officials or the Prime Minister. The latter then quickly left the site of the ceremony to go and inaugurate the new Strasbourg bypass motorway. “It was important that there be this ceremony, in the presence of the Prime Minister, because the Strasbourg attack was not the subject of national homage, unlike those in Paris or Nice,” said Mostafa Salhane, president of the Association Victimes Attentats (AVA), which had been taken hostage by the terrorist.
78 victims
In total, 78 people are considered to be victims of the Strasbourg attack, including the relatives of the five deceased, the injured victims and those shocked. On December 11, 2018, shortly before 8 p.m., Chérif Chekatt, a 29-year-old repeat offender and registered S for Islamist radicalization, had entered, armed with an old revolver and a knife, in the historic center of Strasbourg, where the traditional Christmas market. He had randomly killed five men while walking through the streets and injured ten others.
Managing to escape by taxi, after being wounded by soldiers, he was killed by the police 48 hours later in a district in the south of Strasbourg where he had grown up. A video of allegiance to the Islamic State group was then found on a USB key that belonged to him. On the criminal level, five people are indicted, suspected of being linked to the supply of various weapons in the possession of the killer. A trial could take place in 2023, according to the AVA.
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