The trial of the Trèbes and Carcassonne attacks opened this Monday, January 22. Seven people are being prosecuted for having provided, in one way or another, help to the killer Radouane Lakdim. March 23, 2018. This radicalized 25-year-old man had first targeted people he thought were homosexual, then CRS, before attacking employees and customers of a supermarket. In his wake, he left around fifteen injured and four dead, including Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, who had taken the place of a store employee who had been taken hostage. From this first day, the shadow of the gendarme hovered over the audience
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Hearing report, Laura Martel
At the opening of the hearing, it was impossible to miss the gendarmerie officers, who came in uniforms and caps. But it is a more discreet presence that attracts attention. In the front row of the civil parties, Arnaud Beltrame’s mother is there, alongside two of her sons. The Beltrames know it: the gesture of the eldest of the siblings, who took the place of a hostage at the Trèbes supermarket and paid for it with his life, will be dissected during the hearing.
So in her few words delivered to the press, the mother underlines: “ Arnaud was a fighter, who did not commit suicide. He fought to the death “. Cédric, too, insists on the heroism shown by his brother through a gesture, not of “sacrifice” but of “ of fight », he points out, recalling the last words he said: “ assault, assault! “, A “ courage which must inspirer” to “ stand together against Islamist terrorism », he says.
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The family does not necessarily have high expectations from this trial, since the killer, who acted alone, was shot dead. Among the seven accused – members of his entourage – none is being prosecuted for complicity. Five are being prosecuted for terrorist conspiracy. They are accused of having, to varying degrees, helped Radouane Lakdim but without having had precise knowledge of his project.
“ I have no more questions, I know what happened » says Damien, the youngest of the siblings. But I think that ” this is an important trial for the country », he concludes.
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