During three days of January 2015, the brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, then Amedy Coulibaly have targeted press freedom, the state and the Jewish community. They killed a total of 17 people, including mainstays of the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper, three police officers, as well as an employee and customers of the Hyper Cacher store.
The three jihadists were shot dead by the police. Since September 2, fourteen people, suspected of having helped them are on trial in Paris in front of a special assize court, composed only of five professional magistrates.
Only eleven accused appear. Men aged 30 to 67 with diverse backgrounds, with one thing in common: multiple convictions for theft, violence, drug trafficking or scams. Until their implication in this case, they had never been involved in terrorism cases.
Three others are also under arrest warrant: Hayat Boumeddiene, companion of Amedy Coulibaly, as well as Mehdi and Mohamed Belhoucine, who left for the Iraqi-Syrian zone just before the attacks. They have been given for dead several times, but without official evidence. An investigation was even reopened in April, with a jihadist returning to France claiming that Boumeddiene was still alive in October 2019.
The chilling images of the massacres
After a laborious start, marked by controversies over the wearing of masks during speeches, technical problems with the microphone and broadcasts that interfere with the debates, the examination of the facts begins with a painful moment: the projection of photos and videos of the attack on the premises of Charlie Hebdo.
A heavy silence settles in the room when the pictures taken by the investigators parade showing the horrible progress of the brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, who killed ten people in less than two minutes in the offices. There is a lot of blood there. And a tangle of bodies in the meeting room. “Unbearable”, “chilling”, “appalling” … say when leaving the hearing of the civil parties.
The assistance froze again two weeks later, when the images of the Jewish victims of the Hyper Cacher were projected, stretched out in alleys strewn with cardboard boxes and products fallen from the shelves, shot by Amedy Coulibaly. “A killer totally devoid of empathy”, sums up the anti-terrorist policeman at the helm.
The guilt of survivors
They all three thought they were going to die. Designer Coco composed the code for the front door of Charlie Hebdo at the threat of an assault rifle. Columnist Sigolène Vinson was spared because she was a woman and because an assailant found her the ” sweet eyes “. The cashier of the Hyper Cacher, Zarie Sibony, refused to allow Amedy Coulibaly to finish off his dying colleague, Yohan Cohen.
These survivors put words to the unspeakable, words bathed in tears. “I had agreed to die at that time”, says Coco, when Sigolène Vinson describes the “ leaden silence “ after the massacre, plunging again, with all the weight of guilt, into ” the horror “ carnage. ” It’s hard, Zarie Sibony also said. I haven’t had a single scratch in four hours ” hostage-taking. “Others were gone in seconds. I was sure to die […] ».
Lots of tears, once laughs too
The emotion was often very strong during the moving testimonies of the survivors of the attacks and the relatives of the victims. An investigator from the General Directorate of Internal Security, who came to explain why the surveillance of the Kouachi brothers, S-files, was lifted six months before the killing at Charlie Hebdo, also had trouble holding back his tears: “It is a huge regret to have done all this work and not to have been able to thwart the plans of the terrorists”.
Once, however, laughter erupted in the room and in the two boxes of the accused. When Charb cartoons are shown, at the request of his family. Drawings currying in particular fanaticisms, capitalism or political leaders.
Attacks sow fear in the audience
For the opening of this historic trial, Charlie Hebdo has chosen to republish the cartoons of Mohammed who had made the satirical newspaper the target of the jihadists. In a context of renewed threats against the weekly, the news came to catch up with the audience. First September 25, with the chopper attack near Charlie’s former premises, which left two injured. On October 16, it was the beheading of history and geography professor Samuel Paty that caused fear.
The apologies of Benyettou, the provocative silence of Peter Cherif
His hearing was expected. Heard as witness, Farid Benyettou, considered to be the ex-mentor of Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, authors of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, acknowledged a “Moral responsibility in the course” terrorists. This former preacher, figure of the jihadist network of Buttes-Chaumont, who “Sent fighters to Iraq” in the 2000s, said he repented. He asked for forgiveness from the families of the victims, without however convincing the civil parties.
The other alleged mentor of the Kouachi, presented as a possible sponsor of the attack, Peter Cherif, was also heard by videoconference from his prison. But this jihad veteran, indicted in a disjointed part of the investigation, opposed a provocative silence to the questions of the court, after having only declared: “I was forced to come and testify on a case with which I have nothing to do.”
Contradictions, lies, forgetfulness and sometimes anger of the accused
Before the court, the defendants have multiplied muddled and contradictory statements, sometimes questioning the comments made during the investigation. “I lied, but not to hide something, I lied because I was afraid”, justifies Nezar Mickaël Pastor Alwatik, close to Coulibaly and whose DNA was found on weapons in a home of the killer of the Hyper Cacher.
“I played the fool”, defends Mohamed Fares, alleged intermediary in the purchase of pistols and assault rifles. Amar Ramdani “Regret” him his “Contradictory statements” in front of the judges on six round trips in the Lille region, where Coulibaly’s weapons come from. Travel in the North made with Saïd Makhlouf, who also argues that his ” memory is not that much ”.
“In the weapons section, if we count the number of versions of each other, it’s staggering”, sums up the president, himself sometimes struggling to conduct interrogations.
The main defendant, Ali Riza Polat, tried for “complicity in terrorist crimes”, suspected of helping the jihadists to organize the attacks, also increased the blood shots during the hearing. This 35-year-old Franco-Turkish, stout build, agitates, protests and raises his voice regularly.
Her anger earned her calls to order and even legal proceedings for threats against a police witness: “You’ll pay for it!” “, he had thrown mimicking a punch at her place. He was even kicked out of the accused box by the president last week.
A hearing suspended for a month
The trial was interrupted at the end of October due to Covid-19 cases among the defendants. The suspension, initially planned for a fortnight, was then renewed several times, Ali Riza Polat, suffering from persistent symptoms.
The trial finally resumed last Thursday. The requisitions are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. Defense arguments will follow. The verdict is expected on December 16.
– .
