Trial of the 2015 attacks in France: who are the accused?
The Paris court, September 2, 2020, for the opening of the trial of the 2015 attacks in France.
Thomas COEX / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In France, on the second day of the trial for the January 2015 attacks, the court began examining the personality and background of the six defendants.
Among them, most are delinquents, with different profiles, but all refute any link with the terrorist attacks of Charlie Hebdo, Hyper Cacher or Montrouge.
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With our special correspondent at the Paris court,
Laura Martel
The six defendants are being prosecuted for terrorist and criminal association.
They are mainly accused of having
supplied weapons to the terrorists.
Among them, we count the two Belgian friends, elders of this file.
Michel Catino, 69, is an inveterate player.
In his locker, we find convictions related to the use of his car in a robbery and the clandestine games he organized in his cafe.
Through this, he meets another player, Metin Karasular, 50 years old today, 13 convictions to his credit, mainly for traffic offenses.
Another, however, is of more interest to the court: possession and storage of weapons.
The man minimizes and exclaims: "
I am innocent, more than everyone here
".
"
I sympathize with the victims, I experienced a pain like that at the death of my son,
" says Michel Catino.
"
I am vaccinated against extremism
"
Thirty-year-old Abdelaziz Abbad, Mohamed Fares and Miguel Martinez have also spent several periods in prison, mainly for drug cases or violence.
All claim their innocence.
Miguel Martinez talks about his conversion at a very young age, the comfort that Islam brings him after the death of his father.
“
But I have been vaccinated against extremism for a long time, my relatives told me about the horrors of the dark years in Algeria,
” he assures us.
With emotion, he adds: "
I am deeply ashamed to find myself in a case like this, I feel very bad to be in front of the families of the victims as if I was responsible for their misfortune
".
Cannabis also got Said Makhlouf into trouble.
"
I am a heavy smoker but I had never been imprisoned
", points out the thirty-
something
, who affirms "
not to support this label of terrorist which one wants at all costs to stick to him
".
► To read also: "Charlie Hebdo", Montrouge, Hyper Cacher: the trial of the attacks opens this Wednesday
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