A photo, provided by the French police on January 9, 2015, shows Amédy Coulibaly's companion, Hayat Boumeddiene -
- FRENCH POLICE
Among the 14 accused, three are on trial in their absence: the Belhoucine brothers and Hayat Boumeddiene, but only the latter is believed to be alive.
Her sister says that the Boumeddiene family did not imagine that the young woman could be linked to the attacks.
Since October 2019, K. has not heard from her sister.
Five and a half years after the January 2015 attacks, K.'s emotion seems intact.
In front of the specially composed Assize Court, the young woman, dressed all in red, remembers this disastrous January 9, 2015 and this "double shock" felt by learning that the author of the hostage-taking of the Hyper Cacher n was other than his brother-in-law, Amédy Coulibaly.
This native of Grigny, in Essonne, has been religiously united to his younger sister, Hayat Boumeddiene, for nearly seven years when the attacks occur.
“It was terrible, for me and my whole family because we didn't expect it at all,” she says in a soft voice, her hands hanging on the bar.
It was total incomprehension in the face of this barbarism.
It was unbearable for the whole of society, but even more so for the whole family.
"
If since Wednesday three of the 14 accused are missing, it is undoubtedly the absence of Hayat Boumeddiene that weighs the most.
Because unlike the Belhoucine brothers, the young woman, tried for criminal terrorist association and terrorist financing, is probably still alive, on the run.
Her sister had her last on the phone in October 2019, which supports the testimony of a ghost who indicated that the accused had escaped from the Syrian refugee camp of Al-Hol.
"I maintain this link because I hope she will tell me one day I want to come back to France," she explains, while claiming not to know where she is.
However, to his knowledge and contrary to certain information, his sister would not have remarried.
"I felt her happy"
At the helm, K. retraces the broken childhood of the accused, deeply marked by the death of their mother when she was only 8 years old.
“It was a shock for all of us,” remembers the eldest of the six siblings.
Quickly, their father remarries but “cohesion” does not take place with their mother-in-law and Hayat Boumeddiene moves from home to home until being taken in by a couple who offers her a certain stability.
But it is with Amédy Coulibaly, met through a friend, that the young woman flourishes.
“I felt she was happy, she had found love,” says her oldest child.
Little by little, K. witnesses the intensification of the couple's religious practice.
In the Boumeddiene family, the practice of Islam is above all "cultural".
“We used to do Ramadan, my parents prayed five times a day, we didn't eat pork, no alcohol, but it stopped there.
“Hayat Boumeddiene starts to wear the hijab then refuses the mixtures between men and women.
“She seemed to be fulfilled in her evolution vis-à-vis religion.
She told me that she felt at peace with herself, that it soothed her to cover herself up, ”her sister recalls.
But the young woman does not see the look of people in the street, in public transport so well that she tells her eldest daughter of her desire to settle in a Muslim country.
" Which ?
“Asks the president.
She never told him.
"She told me that she thought that Amédy Coulibaly was going to join her"
On January 2, less than a week before the wave of attacks, Hayat Boumeddiene flew to Syria.
For months K. is convinced that her younger sister is dead.
Until this phone call on April 27, 2015. At the helm, she confides the emotion of living knowledge, but also all the questions about her involvement.
She tells her relatives that she was not aware of what her husband had planned.
"She told me that she thought that Amédy Coulibaly was going to join her", explains K.
She thinks it sincere, questions the court.
Hayat Boumeddiene has, in fact, responded to an interview in the French-speaking magazine of the Islamic State in which she confides her satisfaction after the commission of her attacks.
According to the magistrates, not only could she not ignore her husband's deadly plans, but she would also have actively contributed to them by contracting fraudulent consumer credits and cash withdrawals.
Her sister couldn't answer.
"Is this someone who was certain of her choices or was she being manipulated?"
I could not answer.
One thing is certain, on the other hand, if Hayat Boumeddiene appeared at his door, she affirms that she would open to him "obviously", but would prevent justice.
Justice
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Amédy Coulibaly
Trial of the January attacks
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Hayat Boumeddiene