Trial of the January 2015 attacks: the court examines the Hayat Boumeddiene case
Hayat Boummedienne in a photo made public by the French police, January 9, 2015. AFP PHOTO / FRENCH POLICE
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The trial of the January 2015 attacks in France continues with the personality examination of the accused.
This September 4, the end of the afternoon was devoted to hearing relatives of Hayat Boumeddiene, the companion of the Hyper Cacher killer, Amédy Coulibaly, who left for the Iraqi-Syrian zone a few days before the attacks. and who is the subject of an arrest warrant.
Her sister told the judges their last phone contact was in October 2019.
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With our special envoy to the Paris Court,
Laura Martel
This September 4 in the afternoon, the sister of Hayat Boumeddiene first recounted having experienced a "
double shock
" in January 2015: that "
of the abominable crimes of Charlie and Montrouge
", she said.
Then, on January 9, when Amédy Coulibaly's name came out.
“
There are no words to explain the state I was in,
” she explained.
We didn't expect it at all.
My sister, this barbarity, it was a total incomprehension.
It was very painful
”.
While she thinks her sister is dead, she receives a call on April 27, 2015. Hayat Boumeddiene then asserts that she was not aware of what was going on.
“
She told me that she thought that Amédy Coulibaly was going to join her and that she did not want to hurt us
,” she continued.
Asked about Hayat Boumeddiene's state of mind, her sister hesitates: “
She gave the impression of knowing what she wanted but I was also aware of her emotional fragility linked to our family history.
It's hard for me to say if she was really aware of her choices
”.
Maintain the link
The first two years, the eldest receives two calls per year from her younger sister, only one the following years, the last in October 2019. On their content, she remains evasive: "
These are simple conversations to take news
", according to she.
The General Counsel, Julie Holveck, calls out to him: “
I don't have the impression that you are giving all the keys.
Is it to maintain the link that you avoid blackening the table?
"
"
I am not trying to darken it, or to clarify it, I just seek justice like all the people here
", affirms the forty-something.
Before adding: "
I maintain this link because I have the hope that one day she will tell me
" I want to come back to France "".
"
And does that have an impact on your statement?"
»Asks the magistrate.
"
I do all I can to help justice,
" the witness concludes.
This statement accredits the testimony of a Frenchwoman who returned from Syria, Sonia M., who claimed to have seen
Hayat Boumeddiene, in October 2019, in the huge Syrian refugee camp of Al-Hol.
According to the latter, heard in the context of another procedure, Hayat Boumeddiene has since escaped, possibly to Idlib.
Hayat Boumeddiene, companion of the killer of Hyper Cacher, Amédy Coulibaly, and figure of female jihadism, has been on trial since Wednesday, September 2 in her absence for her role in the January 2015 attacks. Left for the Iraqi-Syrian zone a few days before the attacks in the company of the Belhoucine brothers, also judged by default in this trial, she was for a time given for dead, until the declarations of this Sonia M., in July.
► To read also: Attacks in Paris: Hayat Boumeddiene would be in Syria
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