Trial of the January 2015 attacks: review of the Hyper Cacher hostage-taking

Portraits of victims are displayed outside the Hyper Cacher supermarket in southern Paris on January 9, 2020, during a commemorative ceremony after the deadly hostages.

© FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

The trial of the January 2015 attacks continues, with the beginning of the week devoted to the hostage-taking of the Jewish store Hyper Cacher on January 9, during which Amedy Coulibaly killed 4 people before being shot.

This Monday at the bar, an investigator returned to the course of the events and the attitude of the terrorist.

Publicity

Read more

With our special correspondent at the Paris court,

Laura Martel

The president reminds us in the preamble: Amedy Coulibaly filmed the start of the attack.

Propaganda images that it is out of the question to broadcast,

 " he points out.

It is therefore based on photos taken from video surveillance that the commissioner traces the attack: 1:06 p.m.

Amedy Coulibaly bursts into the convenience store and immediately shoots an employee, Yohan Cohen.

The killer is calm, determined, without any empathy, 

" describes the investigator.

Coulibaly then kills a first client, Philippe Braham, after asking him his name;

then a second, Michel Saada, who had just entered the store.

Yoav Hattab is shot dead after trying to grab a gun from the killer.

It is 13:21, in 15 minutes, it made 4 victims

 ", underlines the investigator.

It is then still nearly 4 hours of hell that await the hostages, whether they are hidden in the basement, or in plain sight of the killer.

To the latter, Coulibaly asks if he should finish off Yoan Cohen who is dying, indicates the commissioner.

The terrorist takes the time to barricade himself, to communicate with a TV channel, he claims to be ISIS and claims to target Jews.

To the negotiator, he details his arsenal, threatens to kill the hostages if a raid is carried out against the Kouachi.

The commissioner says it: the primary objective was to free hostages, but the release of the Kouachi brothers from the printing press precipitated the assault.

It was necessary to act immediately because he watched the news channels and had 20 sticks of dynamite 

", underlines the investigator, " 

enough to collapse the whole building 

", he specifies.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Terrorism

  • Justice

  • France

On the same subject

Trial of the January 2015 attacks: the media in question

January 2015 attack: the court looked at the course from Coulibaly to Montrouge

January 2015 attacks: relatives of the policewoman shot by Coulibaly at the helm