On July 24, 2016, as the sun began to set, Yassine Sebaihia arrived in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray (Seine-Maritime). Leaving Toulouse the same morning by carpooling, he passed through Paris, from where he left by train for Rouen. He comes to join Adel Kermiche for, he assures, to follow “religious course” between Youngs. When he gets off the tram, no one is there to wait for him. He walks for a good half hour to reach the home of the man who, two days later, will assassinate, with his accomplice Abdel-Malik Petitjean, Father Hamel in the church of his commune, before being both killed. by the police.
Yassine Sebaihia, 21 at the time, was one of the last people to see the two terrorists before the attack. He spent a night with them before leaving for Toulouse on the morning of July 24, explaining that he felt “undesirable”. What did they talk regarding? Why this sudden departure? The accused Yassine Sebaihia has never varied in his statements, since his arrest in August 2016 until Thursday, March 3 before the special assize court of the Paris court: “ I had no idea there was anything to do with a hijra (departure to Syria) or an attack. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone”. The president, the general counsel, lawyers for the civil parties tried to extract a confession from him, a snippet of new information. Without success.
Caught up in Syria and its horrors
The young man, who looks like a Gaston Lagaffe with his abundant hair falling over his eyes, his jeans and his white sweater, was in 2016 a kind of “geek” addicted to screens and asocial. He doesn’t work, has dropped out of school. Syria and its horrors catch him, Islam in its radical version interests him. He spends his time on Twitter, YouTube and Telegram following jihadist accounts, including that of Adel Kermiche. His fiancée is fed up, she leaves him. On July 20, Kermiche announced on Telegram his plan to give lessons at the mosque for young people and to set up a «Constitution» (group of fighters) on the model of Sharia4Belgium.
On the evening of July 23, following an argument with his mother, Yassine Sebaihia decides to join Kermiche in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. When he arrives the next evening, Kermiche explains to him that he cannot receive him at his home but that he will see him later. It is Petitjean who welcomes her and takes her to a park. Quickly, the current does not pass any more: Petitjean reproaches Sebaihia for not praying correctly, to attend a girlfriend without being married religiously and to listen to music.
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