The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 continues before the special assize court of Paris. The court continues to be interested in the events that took place in the weeks preceding the attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis, in the preparations for the attacks.
From our special envoy to the Special Assize Court of Paris,
For once, Osama Krayem graced the court with his presence. Dressed in a gray hooded sweater, from which his long brown hair overflows, the 30-year-old Swede, who has been sulking at the hearings for weeks, let it be known through his interpreter that he will not answer questions.
He is, however, one of those who spoke the most during the investigation, but at the beginning of January, the one whom the prosecution considers to be an executive of the Islamic State group had a letter read in which he said having “lost hope”.
Same thing for Sofien Ayari. The Tunisian spoke at length in early February to explain his journeythe choices that led him to go and fight in Syria and why he accepted “ a mission on the European continent. He had done it for the victims, he had explained.
“Just one more version”
” I talked about the part that only involves me. I tried last time to give a general picture of what happened, the way I was thinking at the time he says today. “ For what follows, it will be just one more version. »
At the invitation of his lawyer, he specifies: I have already been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium [pour sa participation à une fusillade avec les policiers pendant la cavale de Salah Abdeslam, ndlr], I risk life here. Then there will be the trial in Belgium where I will be asked the same questions, for the same things, the same facts. »
Sofien Ayari, who would have given up at the last minute to blow himself up in the Brussels metro, will also be in the box in Belgium from October 10. “ So I’m going to defend myself like a dog for two years to finally take 80 years? For guys like me, having hope is dangerous. »
We will therefore not know more about the stays of the two jihadists in the various hideouts where the attacks were prepared, that of rue Henri Bergé in Schaerbeek in particular, where the explosive belts of the commandos of the 13- November.
DNA trace on a Kalashnikov
We will learn at least one thing from the expert questioned before the two accused: a trace of Osama Krayem’s DNA was found on one of the Kalashnikovs used by the terrorists. But on an area only accessible when the weapon is disassembled. His lawyer questions the expert: could this trace come from a garment worn by the jihadist which would have been used to clean the weapon?
It is a possibility, answers the specialist. Osama Krayem’s second lawyer also questions him: no DNA trace of his client was found on the material used to make the explosive belts. The expert’s answer, this time, will disappoint him: it doesn’t prove anything, one way or the other.
Yassine Atar, voluble among the silent
Comes the turn of Yassine Atar. He is as talkative as his two co-defendants are silent. The ex-car salesman jumped up to answer, without always giving the court time to finish his questions, quoting the file that for six years with his lawyers he has been tweaking in all directions.
He is Osama Atar’s brother, considered to be the sponsor of the November 13 attacks, the cousin of the Bakkraoui brothers who blew themselves up at Brussels airport in March 2016. But he is convinced of it, he has nothing to do in the box and nothing to do in jail. His sister and uncle had already portrayed him as a bon vivant far removed from radical Islam.
The court nevertheless wondered about a stay in Verviers on the evening of September 19, 2015. Verviers, where his cousin, Khalid El Bakkraou, was then located, while at the same time the three terrorists from Bataclan arrived in Belgium after a long journey of Syria to Europe. Yassine Attar stampedes, swears he has never seen his cousin in Verviers.
The president insists with regard to the contradictory declarations of other actors in the file: “ Can we hypothesize that you saw him that evening without knowing anything about the plans for the attacks and that you took fright after the fact? ? Yassine Atar replies tit for tat: “ Mr. President, could we hypothesize for two minutes that he did not want to see me and that I did not see him ? »