Paris (AFP)
He throws a glare on the room then launches out, vehement: "I am innocent".
Main accused at the trial of the January 2015 attacks, Ali Riza Polat on Friday denied any responsibility for the attacks, saying "to pay his friendship" to Amédy Coulibaly.
"I am here because of certain people, mythomaniac scales who have told nonsense (...) They balance but they lie", gets angry Riza Polat, white shirt, cloth mask on the face and shaved head , facing the Special Assize Court of Paris.
But these "scales", he will refuse to give the name to the civil parties who seek to understand, summoning them to "wait".
"It's not yet the interrogation on the facts, right?", Boastful Polat, said "the Fat", in the glass box.
Close to the Hyper Cacher killer, who grew up like him in the city of Grande Borne, in Grigny (Essonne), this 35-year-old Franco-Turkish is the only one of the eleven accused present - three other suspects being tried by default - having to answer for "complicity", a crime punishable by life.
Investigators suspect him of having served as the "right arm" of Amédy Coulibaly and of having played a central role in the preparations for the Hyper Cacher and Montrouge attacks, but also that of Charlie Hebdo, committed by the Saïd brothers and Chérif Kouachi.
The terrorist trio was shot down by the police after attacks that left 17 dead and sowed fear and consternation in France and around the world.
"I disavow them. We must not kill innocent people," swears Ali Riza Polat.
"I am not in a religious fight, (...) I am not violent".
"I was told: + You provided the weapons to the Kouachi brothers. + But I don't know them guys!", This repeated offender rages.
- "You have no shame !"
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Born in Istanbul, Ali Riza Polat arrived at the age of three in France.
After a "normal childhood", he "falls" into delinquency "around 13, 14 years old" with "petty theft", then in "stups", by "attraction of money": "When you haven't money, you have nothing. I had nothing and I wanted things ".
A taste for "the good life" which leads him to multiply the scams, after a first passage through the prison box.
Ali Riza Polat traveled a lot then, especially in Lebanon.
Frequent prostitutes.
Dream of organized crime.
"It's almost a leitmotif, with you money: there are some who are addicted to reading, you are addicted to money", quips the president of the Assize Court Régis de Jorna.
"Yes that's it," the accused nods tit for tat.
When he gets out of prison, he warns that he "(will) do banditry, even more. I will do worse".
The debate quickly left the field of delinquency to deviate from that of religion.
"Believer", from a Muslim family, Ali Riza Polat nevertheless explains that he "converted" in 2014: "Before I ate pork. You cannot be a Muslim and eat pork," he argues.
The president is surprised: "You make swindles but afterwards, by the means of the prayers, you ask forgiveness?".
"It's still sins" but "we all do bullshit", annoys Ali Riza Polat.
"A Judeo-Christian person, she does sins, but she says prayers on the side," said the accused, revived by the civil parties, insistent.
Me Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, lawyer for Ali Riza Polat and historical adviser to Carlos, gets involved: "I am surprised that we are having a debate on questions of religion in a secular judicial forum".
"Is there another question than that? You are not ashamed! In front of the victims!", Protested on the benches of the civil parties Me Nathalie Senyk.
"I do not know which side is terrorism with this kind of method", criticizes Me Coutant-Peyre, causing a vast murmur of disapproval.
The Assize Court will examine in the afternoon the personalities of the three major absentees at the trial: Hayat Boumeddiene, companion of Amédy Coulibaly, and the Belhoucine brothers, whose eldest Mohamed is also tried for "complicity".
© 2020 AFP