Since Monday, the special assize court is looking into the hostage-taking of the Hyper Cacher -
ERIC FEFERBERG / AFP
Fourteen people have been tried since September 2 by the special assize court, suspected of having provided assistance to the Kouachi brothers and Amédy Coulibaly.
On January 9, 2015, while the Kouachi brothers took the manager of a printing plant and his employee in Dammartin-en-Goële hostage, Amédy Coulibaly spread terror in a hiding supermarket near the Porte de Vincennes.
Four men will be killed by the terrorist.
At the special assize court in Paris,
Yohan Cohen's mother has been unaware of the circumstances of her eldest son's death for five and a half years.
Five and a half years since her husband, Eric, assures her that on January 9, 2015, Amédy Coulibaly's bullets killed him instantly, at the entrance to the Hyper Cacher at the Porte de Vincennes.
"But me, I know that he suffered", blows the father of the family, hanging on the bar of the special assize court which judges the attacks of January 2015. To protect her, he killed the bullet who hit him in the face did not kill him instantly.
That their 20-year-old son, then a warehouse keeper, died for over an hour before the terrorist attacked him a second time.
"This facility he had to take the life of my son and three other people, I will never forgive," he says.
Her calm voice betrays cold anger.
“Why this hatred of the Jew?
I still can't figure it out.
"
This small neighborhood supermarket might be a kosher sign, the question of religions did not arise, according to Yohan Cohen's former colleague and friend, Lassana Bathily.
Regardless of whether he was a practicing Muslim, "everyone respected each other".
Outside, however, certain habits of his friend surprise him: why does he systematically return plastic bags to hide the name of the sign?
Why is he hiding his kippah under his hood?
"I told him 'stop, nothing is going to happen to you'…" Yohan Cohen will be Amédy Coulibaly's first victim that day.
When Zarie Sibony heard the detonation, the young cashier, thin face and long black hair, was scanning a box of frozen chicken.
As always in terrorism cases, horror arises in the banality of everyday life.
Hidden under her cash register, she hears Amédy Coulibaly asking for the name of a client, Philippe Braham, before slaughtering her coldly.
She believes at first in a robbery, offers the contents of her box.
"Do you think I'm here for the money?"
The Kouachi brothers and I are part of the same team, we split in two, ”the terrorist told him.
"I went up, alone, the ball, in the stomach"
Amédy Coulibaly does not hide it: he hates the Jews, "who love life too much".
At the bar, the young woman, who has lived in Israel since the attack, recounts almost minute by minute this stifling closed door, in which each of her decisions involves her life and that of others.
What to do when none of the hostages hidden in the basement want to come back up, as ordered by the terrorist?
"I went up, alone, with a lump in my stomach ..." Amédy Coulibaly spares him but orders him to go and close the store.
As she draws the iron curtain, a man introduces himself.
"No, no, sir, don't come in," she mimes at the stand.
Michel Saada insists, promises to be fast.
The terrorist shoots him down before he has time to turn around.
"Maybe if I had closed the door faster…" Zarie Sibony blurted out, stifling sobs.
A few minutes later, the terrorist kills Yoav Hattab, 21, after the young man has grabbed a weapon.
“We were all thinking about it, but we didn't have the guts.
"
At the bar, the father of the victim, at the time Chief Rabbi of Tunis, confides his pride in the gesture of his son.
“He tried to save his brothers.
Like the relatives of the other victims, he tells of surviving for his other children.
“Without them, I would have gone mad.
"On January 9, 2015, the world of Valérie Braham, white blouse and long jet black hair, also" collapsed ".
That day, her husband, Philippe, father of their three young children, should never have been at the Hyper Cacher.
The day before, he had already gone shopping but had forgotten some items on the list.
“So I yell at him a bit.
"It's okay, I'm going back".
"No need, I would do without".
But not to upset me… Maybe if I hadn't said anything… ”, his widow sobs, unable to contain her feeling of guilt.
After an interminable afternoon of waiting, she learns that he is part of the list of victims.
“He was my pillar, I died with him.
Today I am alive just for my children.
"
"People have resumed the course of their lives"
Straight like "i", both hands hanging on the bar, she tells about sleepless nights, difficult mornings when you have to give "the image of a strong mother", the panic fear of taking her children to the park or to birthdays.
His departure to Israel - like three of the four families of the victims - did not allay his fears.
“People have resumed the course of their lives, they have their children, have gone back to work.
I tried, once, twice… ”.
Like her, Laurence Saada made her alya after the attack.
With her husband, Michel, they nurtured this project for their retirement.
His death precipitated things.
That day, he stopped buying buns for Shabbat on his way to his bridge club.
"It's been more than five years that every Friday - there have been 297 - I watch the film again", she wrote in a letter read by her brother.
She did not have the strength to return to the Assize Court, to deposit a few meters from the box of the accused.
Before reading the missive, his brother wants to address them.
"In life, you have to choose your friendships, take them on board," he explains gently.
If we sell a machine gun or a grenade, it is not to go shopping, if we sell a vest by bullet to go for a walk ... "
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