• On April 20, 2017, Brigadier Xavier Jugelé was participating in a security mission along the Champs-Elysées in Paris, when Karim Cheurfi opened fire with a Kalashnikov.

    Hit by two bullets, the policeman died instantly.

  • If the terrorist was shot, four men suspected of having helped him obtain a weapon have been on trial since Monday.

  • This Thursday, the relatives of the victim were called to testify.

At the specially composed assize court in Paris,

It is by a letter, read by one of his lawyers, that Odile, Xavier Jugelé's mother, chose to tell the specially composed Assize Court, this fatal evening of April 20, 2017. This day when Karim Cheurfi opened fire on police officers on the Champs-Elysées, killing his eldest son. “In a fraction of a second, I learn the unthinkable, that I, your mom, could no longer hug you,” she wrote. It is a little after 8 p.m. when the younger brother of the victim tumbles into the family living room, distraught, learning from his parents that a man has committed an attack, deliberately targeting the police.

Immediately, the mother sends a message to her eldest child.

“Time flies, five minutes, ten minutes, nothing.

Not an answer.

I then write the second SMS which also remains unanswered.

And for good reason… ”His son, who was preparing to celebrate his 38th birthday, hit by two bullets in the neck and skull, died instantly.

Two of his colleagues and a young German student were also injured.

"A mother does not bring a child into the world to see it die under these conditions", she insists.

"I let you judge because it is your role"

Karim Cheurfi was shot dead a few minutes after the attack by Xavier Jugelé's teammates. Fortunately, because otherwise it could have been me in this box, blows the father of the victim, a former soldier, now 66 years old. Four men, suspected of having helped - to varying degrees - the terrorist to obtain his weapon have nevertheless been on trial since Monday. Among them, only Nourredine A., appears for a criminal terrorist offense. He is the only one of the defendants who knew the killer and spent long moments with him in the weeks leading up to the murder. The three are returned for illegal possession of a weapon.

At the helm, Michel Jugelé recounts his pride in seeing his son embrace the same "vocation" as him, to see him cut his teeth on the military base where he himself started. He also tells modestly, that this "April 20, 2017, happiness has taken a hell of a blow in the face." Not a week goes by without his going to his late son's grave, "rain or shine". So, he struggles to hide his exasperation, even his cold anger, when he hears the accused complain about their placement in solitary confinement since the beginning of their detention. “I want justice to be done. I trust the state and its institutions. I am not saying that the accused are terrorists because I cannot prove it, ”he explains. Before insisting: "I let you judge because it is your role. "

It is now the turn of Etienne Cardilès, the companion of the victim whose life he had shared for six years, to advance before the court. His speech, as poignant as it is dignified, during the national tribute is remembered. But this Thursday, this diplomat, warns from the outset: he does not “intend to revive the intimacy of a drama”. He prefers to give his impressions of the first days of the trial. These "arguably desperate arguments" from the accused that he can hardly believe. "The lightness as a regret did not convince any of us", he insists, estimating that "none of them feels concerned".

The emotion, until then contained, arises when the president of the Assize Court, Laurent Raviot, invites him to comment on some photos of the victim projected in the courtroom.

Their last vacation in Crete, pictures of Xavier Jugelé with his parents or his siblings.

"His last visit to his family dated from the weekend just before the attack," recalls Etienne Cardilès.

He wanted to postpone his stay for a week for logistical reasons.

I pushed him to go, I'm happy.

The trial is to continue until the 18th.

Justice

Attack on the Champs-Elysées: Three of the four men tried did not know the terrorist

Society

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  • Trial

  • Paris

  • Terrorism

  • Terrorist attacks in Paris

  • Champs-Elysees

  • Justice