A new step in the trial of the attacks of November 13, which has been able to resume its normal course, now that Salah Abdeslam has been declared cured of Covid-19 and fit to appear. The defendants will now be questioned on the merits of the case, starting with their relationship to religion. First heard this Tuesday, November 11, Mohamed Abrini, 37, childhood friend of Salah Abdeslam and in particular accused of having accompanied the commandos to Paris the day before the attacks.
” Do you think you are radicalized? »Asks the president straight away. ” There are places in the world, Saudi Arabia for example, where you will find radical practice, but for me it is normal Islam “, Calmly exposes Mohamed Abrini” for me sharia, divine law, is above the law of men and if I were free, I would live in a country where it is applied “.
If he denies being ” an Islamic State cadre “, The accused presents strong convictions, in clear opposition to” you Westerners “, And democracy” incompatible “, according to him, ” with islam “.
How has this Belgian little practicing until the end of 2014 changed? wants to know the court. The departure and death of his brother in Syria were decisive. “ He was the cause of my repentance, of God who guided me “, Explains Abrini, who refuses to condemn the attacks, even if he recognizes that the victims were” the innocent “. ” Me, I am not able to blow myself up to kill people. But those who did it were in response to the bombings, to the violence. I understand them He advances without animosity.
To a lawyer who asks him what he would like to say to the civil parties, he answers after a long hesitation: ” All I can tell them is that it’s really sad what happened to them. They were doubly victims both of France’s foreign policy and of ISIS’s foreign policy. “
It is not, affirms Mohamed Abrini, of “ to justify ” Where “ legitimize “The attacks, but for him they are” war victims “. Gold ” in the war »He repeats, often with haphazard historical parallels,« disgusting things don’t come from one side. “