At the helm, the hostages of Amedy Coulibaly at the Hyper Cacher tell the stifling behind closed doors -
FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP
Fourteen people have been tried since September 2 by the special assize court, suspected of having provided assistance to the Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly.
On January 9, 2015, while the Kouachi brothers took the manager of a printing plant and his employee in Dammartin-en-Goële hostage, Amedy Coulibaly held 26 people hostage and killed four men.
Hidden in the basement or in front of the terrorist, all confided to having had the feeling of not being able to leave the store alive.
Even today, Jean-Luc struggles to close the door to his room to sleep in his bed.
In the evening, he prefers to sit on the sofa in the living room to wait for sleep which is often slow in coming.
“It allows me to get some fresh air, smoke a cigarette.
I never close the shutters anyway ”, specifies this elegant fifty-something, the hands joined in front of the bar of the special assize court which judges, until November 10, the attacks of January 2015. Since the taking of hostages of the Hyper Cacher, where he spent 4 hours and 4 minutes in the cold room of the mini-market, convinced that he could not escape the bullets of Amedy Coulibaly, he can no longer bear being locked up.
While confident, aware of the paradox, not to have left his home for two years.
"We were waiting for our death"
When he hears the first clicks of the Kalashnikov, Jean-Luc descends, with about fifteen customers, the spiral staircases at the back of the store, hoping - wrongly - to find an emergency exit.
Trapped in the basement, they are distributed in the two cold rooms.
Some finally agree to go upstairs as ordered by Amedy Coulibaly who sends, on several occasions, other hostages begging them to follow them.
The dilemma is terrible, to face the terrorist or risk having other hostages killed.
Jean-Luc hesitates, climbs one step, two steps, then turns around, paralyzed.
In this giant freezer, which they took care to unplug, seconds last forever.
There are six of them, including a ten-month-old baby who must be taken care of at all costs to avoid crying and attracting attention.
A bunch of keys, an empty medicine box are transformed into a makeshift toy.
“When we heard a noise, we took twenty minutes to catch our breath, we didn't dare to breathe because we didn't want to make a noise.
Because from the "top", they ignore everything.
How many terrorists are present, how many hostages, how are they… "We were waiting for our death," he confides in a blank voice.
"You want us to shoot it down, we'll be quieter"
The first time one of the store's cashiers came to pick them up to tell them to come back up, Brigitte also refused to follow her.
Paralyzed by fear, on the verge of delirium when she asks her companion to call a friend to send "helicopters".
An umpteenth time, a hostage descends, "an elegant woman".
“As I become a little more conscious again but still being very scared, I say to my husband, 'let's go up'.
We cannot leave this person begging us.
They had hardly climbed the stairs when the horror was exposed before their eyes.
Yoav Hattab who had seized one of Coulibaly's weapons is lying at the top of the stairs, forcing them to step over it, to "walk in his blood".
Supported at the bar, this 50-year-old blonde woman seems to relive this appalling closed door where every decision can have dramatic consequences.
She represses a sob as she remembers the excruciating groans of Yohan Cohen, seriously injured in the face, who was in agony for more than an hour.
She can't help but cover her ears and bury her head in her legs.
Amedy Coulibaly notices her, addresses her.
"He takes my head, it's starting to annoy me, you want us to shoot him, will we be quieter?"
All the hostages protest.
The terrorist then turns away from the victim and leaves - surreal scene - to make a sandwich.
Two hostages set up a makeshift table for him.
"As much as we die in gaiety," he blustered.
Even today, Brigitte feels ashamed not to have been able to face the suffering of the young man of 20 years.
As she is "ashamed" to say to herself, sometimes, during her "crises", "I would have preferred to die in this Hyper Hide".
“I want to move forward, but I can't, I can't…” she explains, sobs strangled in her throat.
“I had no choice, I immediately felt he was determined.
"
To "rebuild herself", Sophie left France for the United States.
Leave behind the nightmare nights, "the guilt of all these deaths", the feeling of insecurity.
Sophie is the "elegant woman" followed by Brigitte and other hostages, including a father and his young son.
“I blamed myself for bringing up a three-year-old child.
I said to myself, my God, what are you doing… ”, confides in a gentle voice this mother of a family in a video broadcast in the room.
Because of the health crisis, she was unable to come and testify physically.
When she arrives in the Hyper Cacher, Amedy Coulibaly has already started sowing death.
“The first image, I'll never forget, I saw the first victim, Yohan Cohen.
He was on the ground, his face contorted, bloody.
She thinks of running away but the terrorist catches up with her.
“I had no choice, I immediately felt he was determined.
"In the shelves of the supermarket, time is elastic, each minute lasts" an eternity ".
With other hostages, she tries to protect the boy, "to hide the unbearable bodies from him."
Can he be released? She asks Amedy Coulibaly.
No, it could serve as a bargaining chip.
He will leave this store at the same time as the 26 hostages, after an assault of extreme violence.
“For five, ten minutes, it just kept going.
Gusts everywhere.
Then silence.
»Seeing the men of the BRI who make them leave, she thinks back to this sentence of Amedy Coulibaly.
" It is just beginning.
Sadly premonitory at the start of 2015.
Hyper Hide
Amédy Coulibaly
Trial
Paris
Justice
Trial of the January attacks