Trial of the "Charlie Hebdo" attack: the terrible story of the boss of the printing press
Michel Catalano, the boss of the printing plant in Dammartin-en-Goele, in the Paris court on September 16, 2020, for the trial of the January 2015 attacks. Thomas Samson / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The Special Assize Court of Paris heard this Wednesday, September 16 the owner of the printing house in which the Kouachi brothers had entrenched themselves, before being shot.
The entrepreneur told how he had done everything so that the two terrorists do not discover his employee, hidden under a sink.
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With our special correspondent at the Paris court,
Marine de la Moissonnière
This is an extremely moving testimony given by the owner of the printing house in Dammartin-en-Goële, in Seine-et-Marne, before the
special assize court in Paris
.
Michel Catalano was called to speak on these hellish hours of January 9, 2015.
Two days after the killing perpetrated by Chérif and Saïd Kouachi in the premises of
Charlie Hebdo
, one day after the murder of policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe by Amedy Coulibaly in a street in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine), his business was in in turn the
theater of horror
.
The Kouachi brothers, surrounded by the GIGN, had entrenched themselves there.
► To read also: At the trial of the attack of "Charlie Hebdo", the survivors tell their trauma
"I wanted my employee to make it out alive"
“
As soon as I saw them, I accepted that I was going to die.
But I wanted my employee to get out of this alive,
”said the business manager.
In tears, he recounted how, throughout this closed session, saving the young man hidden under a sink had become his only objective.
The compass that dictated each of his actions, each of his responses to terrorists.
Above all, do not annoy them, prevent them from heading towards the back of the building, stay focused ...
The man, 48 years old at the time, gave up on seizing the Kalashnikov rifle of one of the brothers.
He finally came out of the shower in which he had been able to hide.
He will not say it, but his employee will at the bar: the boss has sacrificed himself.
The Kouachi finally let him out.
Michel Catalano thought they would follow him to do battle with the police, but this was not the case.
An extremely difficult reconstruction
It was then that a new terrible anguish began for him.
He felt he had abandoned his employee, still in hiding.
The assault launched by the GIGN shortly before 5 pm will last one minute;
for the boss, it will seem to last 20. And when he heard "
targets neutralized, hostage alive
", finally Michel Catalano was able to breathe.
Reconstruction, then, will be extremely difficult.
“
Living had become a test,
” he told the court.
The man fought for his family, to rebuild his business ... To such an extent that he could not take care of his father, who died in 2015. A modest father, but who would say to him: "
The most beautiful thing you did for me was not to be dead before me.
"
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