The trial of the jihadist attack in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray (Seine-Maritime) opened on Monday in Paris almost six years following the stabbing assassination of Father Hamel in the middle of mass, which had provoked the terror beyond the French borders.
The perpetrators of the beatings, Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Petitjean, both 19, who claimed to belong to the Islamic State (IS) group, were killed by the police as they left the small church in the suburbs of Rouen, on July 26, 2016.
Close to the accused, the three men present in the box of the special assize court of Paris, Jean-Philippe Jean Louis, Farid Khelil and Yassine Sebaihia, appear for “terrorist criminal association” and incur thirty years of criminal imprisonment.
They are suspected of having been aware of their projects, of having shared their ideology or of having tried to join Syria.
The president of the court, Franck Zientara, opened the proceedings by confirming that the fourth defendant, Rachid Kassim, the alleged instigator of the attack, would be tried in his absence.
This French IS propagandist is presumed dead in a bombardment in Iraq in February 2017. He is the only one to be indicted for complicity in the assassination of the priest and the attempted assassination of a parishioner, accused of to have “knowingly encouraged and facilitated the passage to the act” of the two jihadists.
– “To understand” –
Despite the absence of the main officials, the victims and their relatives hope that the hearing, scheduled for nearly four weeks, will help to “understand” what happened.
Present Monday at the hearing, Guy Coponet, who attended mass with his wife and had been seriously injured, wished that the trial allow “that it ends in a good way”.
“If those who are responsible might ask forgiveness from all those to whom they have hurt, I think we will have won our day,” he added to AFP.
Now 92, Mr. Coponet “wants to understand, through the trial, how young people just out of adolescence have come to commit such horrors,” his lawyer told AFP. Me Mehana Mouhou.
On the other hand, the three nuns also present at the mass sent a medical certificate attesting that they were not in a condition to come and testify.
“We are waiting for the truth to be told regarding the lack of resources that might not be given to the public forces to avoid this massacre on my brother’s body,” said one of Father Jacques Hamel’s sisters, Roseline, on Monday.
One of the assassins was placed under an electronic bracelet at the time of the attack, following an aborted departure for Syria.
“Justice must be done and the truth known (…) for the family of Father Hamel (…) for those who lived through these tragic hours. It is also necessary for the accused and their relatives”, has estimated Monday in a statement by the Conference of Bishops of France.
– “Guilty of what?” –
The Archbishop of Rouen, Mgr Dominique Lebrun, also asked AFP regarding the responsibility of the three accused “detained for five years”: “Are they guilty? Of what?”
For Béranger Tourné, lawyer for Jean-Philippe Jean Louis, the answer is clear: these three defendants are “only three lamplighters (…) who are trying to hang up” artificially on the attack.
The prosecution describes his client, now 25, as “very active in the jihadosphere”, through the administration of a pro-ISIS Telegram channel and the creation of online fundraisers to support people from “the radical Islamist movement”.
A few weeks before the attack, he had traveled to Turkey with Abdel-Malik Petitjean, to, according to the prosecution, join Syria.
Farid Khelil, cousin of Abdel-Malik Petitjean, is presented as fascinated by jihadist speeches. Also in contact with Rachid Kassim on Telegram, he would have supported his cousin’s desire for violent action.
This 36-year-old from Nancy “was not at all aware of his cousin’s criminal project” and “denies having shared his ideology”, on the contrary assures AFP his lawyer, Me Simon Clemenceau.
As for Yassine Sabaihia, 27, who had briefly joined the two terrorists in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on July 24, before returning to Toulouse, “he did not know what was being prepared”, says his lawyer, Me Katy Mira, hoping that the trial “will bring to light the non-involvement” of her client.
