Mehdi Nemmouche’s trial is over. The verdict will be returned in the late afternoon. The prosecution requested life imprisonment, accompanied by a 22 -year -old security period.
It is the end of more than a month of trial. Mehdi Nemmouche is accused of having been the Western hostage jailer, which spent 10 months in the basements of Aleppo (Syria). He was formally identified by the hostages, in particular by his photo but also to the sound of his voice, as one of those who retained them hostage, tortured and humiliated for almost a year, between 2013 and 2014. Twenty hostages came to attend the trial, including journalists Didier François, Edouard Elias, Nicolas Hénin and Pierre Torres. They identified the jihadist after the May 2014 attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels, during which Mehdi Nemmouche had shot 4 people, as recalled Le Figaro.
A noisy defense argument
Mehdi Nemmouche’s lawyer, Me Francis Vuillemin, tried to convince the Paris Special Assize Court that the jihadist was not one of the jailers, during a pleading of almost three hours, made by speaking very strong, Thursday, March 20. As a reminder, Mehdi Nemmouche acknowledges being an Islamic state terrorist, but not to have participated in the deprivation of freedom of Western hostages. According to his advice, it was “cognitive biases” that led the old hostages to identify it as a executioner: “they need a culprit and this one is ideal.”
At the opening of the trial, on February 17, the accused assured: “I was never the jailer of Western hostages or any other, and I have never met these people in Syria”. However, the hostages are sure “100 %” that he is their jailer: “It is the voice that brought me for hours”, which “terrorized me, which made me piss off in cells”. That of the one “who spoke too much, who spoke all the time”, described Édouard Elias at the helm.
Me Francis Vuillemin finally attacked the various actors in the trial. According to him, the civil parties have taken up too much space and “crushed the word of the defense”. In addition, he criticized the press for having come “to the corporatist support of four journalist victims”. The terrorist’s advice attacked ancient hostages: “We can be a real victim, who suffered there, but also being ridiculous and in bad faith,” he launched about a ex-Spanish hostage sitting in the room, which left it during pleading.
An assumed terrorist
“I was a terrorist and I will never apologize,” assured the accused, who added: “It was by terrorism that the Syrian people have freed themselves from the dictatorship and yes I was a terrorist and I will never apologize, I do not regret one day, not an hour, not an act”, before the special assize court is retired to deliberate.
The jihadist also talked about his incarceration: “I have been in isolation for a long time but I sail without difficulty, I do not lose course”. His advice also assured that incarceration had become his “natural element” in which he is “fulfilled” after “a life of tumult”.
What are the requisitions?
The defense wanted to be simple after a long argument: “Judge it,” simply launched the lawyer for Mehdi Nemmouche. On the victims’ side, “recognition of facts is no longer a subject”, as Nicolas Hénin explained to AFP, the time is now for condemnation. The accusation claimed, Wednesday, March 19, the imprisonment of perpetuity against a “criminal without state of mind”, according to The Parisian. The lawyers general asked that this sentence accompanied by a 22 -year -old security period, the maximum. This means that, if it is condemned, he will not be able to ask for early release during this period. The verdict will be returned in the afternoon, Friday, March 21.
As a reminder, other people are judged during this trial. There is Abdelmalek Tanner and Guillaume Kapo, accused of having also been jail trees of Western hostages. Two allegedly dead people are also judged: Osama Atar, already sentenced to life for having commanded the attacks of November 13, which “supervised the management of hostages”, and Salim Benghalem, one of the jalpers. Kais Al Abdallah, 41, identified as old number 2 from IS in Raqqa, is also one of the accused.