At the trial of the July 14 attack in Nice, the court took an interest this Monday, November 14 in the personality of Ramzi Arefa, one of the three main defendants in this case prosecuted for association with terrorist criminals. This Niçois, who was 21 at the material time, admitted having played the intermediary in the supply of a pistol to Mohamed Lahouaeij Bouhlel, but denies any knowledge of his terrorist project.
From our special correspondent at the Paris courthouse,
” When I understood what had really happened, what the terrorist had done, I was shocked by the monstrosity of this horrible and atrocious act Ramzi Arefa speaks so low that he is almost inaudible. But he voices the guilt he feels for having helped supply the terrorist with a weapon: “ I had just been released from prison, I was dealing in a bit of everything, my objective was to make as much money as possible. I was a 21-year-old prick, I didn’t ask myself too many questions and when I think about it today, I’m ashamed. »
Shortly after his birth in Nice, his parents took him at the age of 5 to Tunisia, their country of origin, where his father ran construction sites. Back in Nice, her parents separated quickly. The comfortable life is over, with his mother and his sister, they live from hotel to hotel. At the end of the 4th, Ramzi Arefa leaves school, and the ” bullshit he said, begin. Following the model of his two older brothers who ” go back and forth in prison he smokes and sells cannabis, commits thefts and burglaries. Looting which earned him imprisonment in 2014. It was on this occasion that he met future terroristwhich delivers drinks to prison.
After his release in February 2016, he saw him again in the neighborhood: “ I started selling him coke and then he asked me for a gun. I looked for a contact everywhere around me, (…) I made the transaction and I did not see him again. Ramzi Arefa admits having acted out of greed, but never participated in a terrorist project, especially since religion never interested him. This is confirmed by the report of the QER, the radicalization evaluation district, which indicates that ” the facts seem to be part of a common law perspective, motivated by the financial attraction “.
An accused who has reviewed his “values”
A passage to the QER which, affirms the accused, allowed him to ” growing up “. ” It allowed me to think a lot, ask myself the right questions, understand how I could have come to this. This is a question I still ask myself today. Ramzi Arefa affirms it: he preferred a harsher sentence, without the terrorist qualification, than a lighter sentence with this ” terrorist tag », « the worst thing in the world he says.
In the future, the 27-year-old defendant hopes to be able to resume marketing training and set up his own business. Among his ideas, sell toilets “. Surrounding yourself with normal people “, assures Ramzi Arefa, he also reviewed his “ values “: ” I had plenty of time to reflect, see where my mistakes were, like easy money. Today, I would have preferred to be under a bridge than where I am. When you look at people like Jeff Bezos, they weren’t billionaires before they became successful. It’s twice as honorable to succeed coming from below without cheating. I prefer to go out, struggle, not go as fast as I wanted to go before and make my mother proud, live honorably. And the accused concludes: every day i try to become better “.
►To read: Nice attack: a killer with an elusive profile and motivations