At the trial of the Nice attack, this Thursday, November 10 was devoted to the interrogation of Chokri Chafroud, one of the three main defendants, prosecuted for association with terrorist criminals. This Tunisian, friend of Mohamed Lahouaeij Bouhlel, is particularly implicated by a message found in the killer’s phone, which mentions an order for weapons to ” Chokri and his friends “. A message that the accused, who denies any involvement, claims not to understand.
From our special correspondent at the Paris courthouse,
” You know the stakes of this trial better than I do. », Annoys the president, who urges Chokri Chafroud, a 43-year-old Tunisian, to be more clear and complete. For if the accused has against him ” elements that in themselves do not mean much “, their ” convergence creates a presumption of charges suggesting that you may have knowledge of the project of the attack, warns Laurent Raviot.
The answers of the Tunisian, via its interpreter, are often laconic, the ” I do not remember » frequent. This is ” by fear » and for the sake of « to get some distance of the perpetrator of the attack, he says, that he initially denied having his closeness to Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlelthis ” friend » from whom he hoped for help for housing, he who lived in precarious conditions, and who paid him sandwiches and with whom he exchanged a number of messages, often vulgar: « It breaks my balls Daesh launched Chokri Chafroud in March 2016, “on fuck Daesh then replies the future terrorist.
But it is on the meaning of another message, sent a month later when deadly clashes took place in Tunisia, that the Court dwells: “ Load the truck, put 2 000 tons of iron, cut his brakes and I’m watching writes Chafroud. ” A Tunisian joke he pleads, to blow his nose at Mohamed Lahouaeij Bouhlel who constantly complained about his job as a driver, when he was lucky enough to have a job and a family, when he had neither work nor money.
Chokri Chafroud aboard the future ram truck that will kill 86 people
And how does he explain this five-minute journey – as evidenced by the cameras – in the future ram-truck on July 12, 2016 on the Promenade des Anglais? Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel has “ insisted that I go up » says the accused, but « once on board, I saw that he was talking to himself, saying incomprehensible things. When I wanted to get off, he got mad, he started banging on the steering wheel “.
And then there’s this text message sent just before the attack to another defendant, in which the killer orders five pistols to ” Chokri and his friends “. ” Maybe there’s an element of ranting, but could he have thought that you might be involved in a terrorist project with other people? “, tries the president. ” I don’t know what he had in mind “, repeats Chokri Chafroud for the umpteenth time, before ensuring with unprecedented conviction: “ Impossible, I’m not that type of person, I would never do such a thing. »
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