They wanted to blow up a car loaded with gas cylinders not far from Notre Dame, in the heart of Paris. Inès Madani and Ornella Gilligmann, two radical French women aged 21 and 32, respectively, are appearing with six other people - including Rachid Kassim, under arrest warrant and presumed dead in Syria - in front of the specially constituted Assize court from Monday. More than that of a failed attack, the trial is one of the most atypical cases of French anti-terrorism.
A teenage girl pretending to be a jihadist fighter
Everything starts with a flirt on the Internet, in 2016. Since the Loiret, Ornella Gilligmann, converted, radicalized, mother of three children to soon 30, drags on sites dedicated to Islam. She meets a certain Abu Souleymane. Behind this so-called fighter, returned from Syria, hides in fact Ines Madani, 19 years old, post-adolescent propelled mentor apprentices jihadists by the magic of digital. When she makes an appointment with Gilligmann at Quick de Sevran, Madani comes down with a rose, from his men's doubles.
Nobody knows precisely what they say, but three days later, around 22 hours, the two young women head for Paris, each driving a car. They turn for hours, pass near the Eiffel Tower, before abandoning one of the vehicles, a 607 loaded with six gas cylinders, near Notre-Dame. They send a video claim to Rachid Kassim, "inspirer" of the terrorist attacks in Magnanville and Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, then spread diesel, throw a cigarette and run away. But the fire does not take.
A "commando" of women prosecuted for criminal conspiracy
One will be arrested four days later south of Orange, in Vaucluse, the other in Essonne, while she foments a new attack with two other young women, who will also be in the box of the accused . Among them is Sarah Hervouët, also guided by Rachid Kassim on encrypted messengers. During her arrest, the latter stabbed a police officer in civilian clothes of the DGSI who is in a van.
The "commando" of women has therefore go to court for a trial that should last until October 12. Ines Madani and Ornella Gilligmann face life imprisonment for "criminal criminal conspiracy" and "attempted murder".