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A press cartoon shows Mourad Farès on the first day of his trial before the special assize court in Paris, January 20, 2020. Benoit PEYRUCQ / AFP

The trial of Mourad Farès opened on Monday January 20 before the special assize court in Paris. This 35-year-old Franco-Moroccan is accused of having sent many French jihadists to fight in the Iraqo-Syrian zone, where he himself went in 2013-2014. This first day was mainly dedicated to the study of his personality and the context of his radicalization.

The youth of Mourad Farès is uneventful: a close-knit family, follower of a moderate Islam, a successful schooling. " Brilliant, he could have done preparatory classes for high schools, " said his current math teacher. But after graduating, Mourad Farès gets lost: he multiplies jobs and then no longer works.

Its radicalization, he claims, would have taken place in a few months. In October 2012, the death of a cousin immerses him in a spiritual quest, which he feeds on the internet: while he plans to settle in a Muslim country, he discovers the videos of the Nice propagandist, Omar Diaby, the contact in December.

" I was in the grip of this mentor, " says Mourad Farès, accused of having recruited dozens of young people before he himself joined Syria in the summer of 2013. But the profile and the career of the one who said today " repented " seem more complex.

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" I would not answer any question of this kind, " he replied to the president who asked her about her sexual orientation. However, according to a prison report, Omar Diaby knew that Mourad Farès was homosexual and would even have used it to encourage him to leave telling him that he would thus erase his sins.

Two witnesses also believe that he was torn between his faith and his inclination and that it played in his tilt: " Faced with the complexity of its reality, this ideology was undoubtedly a simpler way to give meaning to its life, ”says an ex-companion.

Testimonies which also raise the question of the sincerity of Mourad Farès, since the two men claim to have observed disturbing signs in his home several months before the death of his cousin.