A week after the opening of the Strasbourg Christmas market attack, the court looked into the profile of the terrorist Chérif Chekatt this Thursday, March 7. Four people are on trial for having, to varying degrees, participated in providing weapons to this 29-year-old from Strasbourg, shot dead by the police two days after his murderous journey of December 11, 2018, during which he killed five people .
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Hearing report, Laura Martel
The court heard from one of Chérif Chekatt’s brothers, his father and Michael Chiolo, a former fellow inmate who will be tried next year for stabbing two prison guards. But after nine hours of hearing, the contours of Chérif Chekatt’s profile remain unclear.
First there was the older brother’s logorrhea, “ theatrical, contradictory, vindictive and disturbing », summarizes a lawyer of the parties. What emerges above all is that he considers his younger brother as “ a victim “. “ My brother was a good person, but he experienced a lot of injustice, he says. He was gentle, generous, but unfortunately naive, not adapted to living in this world. »
His act is inexcusable, but he did it because he was rotten during his childhood.
Then comes the father, with loose ties with this son about whom he ultimately has little to say, beyond the fact that he was ” kind and polite » and that he would not have “ never believed capable » of such a crime.
The clearest is ultimately Michael Chiolo, this open supporter of the Islamic State, who while claiming responsibility for the attack on two guards, also spoke of “ revenge » Cherif Chekatt. “A man who followed through on his beliefs and convictions,” he describes, in the middle of a speech modeled on Daesh propaganda.
From 2014, Chérif had a certain attraction for IS, he had in mind to attack France.
And to explain: “ He only spoke about it once. IS advocates precautions to avoid arrest. In Chérif’s place, if I was looking for a weapon, I would have mentioned a robbery. If you talk about an attack, even a friend of 15 years can report you. » An interesting point for the main accused, who rightly maintains that he was thinking of selling a weapon to his delinquent friend for a criminal project, and not a terrorist one.
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