Abuses, rapes, attacks … First accused questioned at the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris, Tuesday, Mohamed Abrini did not deny anything regarding the Islamic State (IS) group and justified the attacks, a “response to violence” western.
Standing in the box, the 37-year-old Belgian, known to be the “man in the hat” of the 2016 attacks in Brussels, is bombarded with questions by the president of the special assize court, Jean-Louis Périès, who press for ten minutes to say what he really thinks of religion, jihad, ISIS.
Finally, he does.
“Listen, those who blow themselves up, it is a response to the bombardments. If we do not have a soldier to kill on the spot, we carry out attacks. It is attacks once morest bombardments,” he says.
Mohamed Abrini is the first of the 14 defendants present to be questioned on the merits of the case, four months following the opening of the trial. In this first phase, they will only be heard regarding what happened before the summer of 2015.
He turned to radicalization in 2014, with the death of his “little brother” killed in Syria. He confirms, but nuances: “For you it’s radical. For me it’s normal Islam”.
“Islam such as it is taught by the prophet is not compatible with democracy. For you, a man who has three wives is + weird +, you manage to make controversies even for halal”, launches later this talkative brunette in a checkered shirt.
– “It’s the war” –
“I take the Koran in its entirety”, he adds, “proud” of his younger brother who “sacrificed himself to help the innocent” in Syria.
The court recalls that his brother belonged to a brigade known for its cruelty, including towards civilians. “It’s war, that’s how it is,” eludes Mohamed Abrini. “It is a duty for all Muslims to go and do jihad.”
President Périès pushes. Does that justify attacking people on the terrace, at concerts? “
“Disgusting things don’t just come from one side.”
The president insists, recalls that the French bombings in Syria “did not begin until September 2015”. Mohamed Abrini loses his temper. “We have the impression of hearing children, + it was you who started it! +. Before there had been drone strikes that killed civilians”.
The president asks once more: “and that justifies the attacks?”
“Me that, I am not able to do it, I have always said it”, sweeps away the one who gave up blowing himself up during the attacks in Brussels and whose real reason for coming to Paris with the commandos in November 2015 remains unclear.
“Going to Syria to see innocent people being killed, then coming back to kill innocent people – because they were innocent people … At one point in the brain, it stalls,” he explains.
– “I accept everything” –
The court, the parties, push him for hours but he refuses to condemn ISIS. The filmed beheadings of hostages? “You too have cut off your king’s head.” Rape of Yazidi women? “It was done in all the conquests … Historians qualify it as a birth rate project”.
“I accept everything, in the same way that you accept the whole of the history of France with its dark and luminous pages”, loose Mohamed Abrini.
To a civil party lawyer, he refuses to answer. “You disgust me,” she told him, startling the court.
“You say to the media, these hyenas, that we are impervious to the pain of the victims. I’m sorry, it’s breaking my balls,” he loses his temper. “I was not there on November 13, I killed no one. I heard people complaining for two months at the stand.”
It is the turn of the civil parties in the room to jump. “Complain?”, We protest on the benches.
Another lawyer asks if he has anything to say to the victims. Long silence. “It’s a funny question, I don’t know what to answer you”. A new silence. “It’s really sad what happened to them. They are double victims, of the foreign policy of France and that of the Islamic State”.
The lawyer pushes once more, infuriating the accused. “Are you going to sleep well if I say I condemn? If I might, I would have bought universal peace. But I can’t afford it.”
