The Sainte-Thérèse-de-l'Enfant-Jésus church was one of the two targeted by Sid-Ahmed Ghlam in 2015 -
VU LAURENT / SIPA
Sid-Ahmed Ghlam, 29, has been appearing since Monday before the Special Assize Court for “assassination and attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and “criminal terrorist association”.
He is accused of having killed, in April 2015, a young woman of 32 years old and of having planned to commit an attack in a church in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne).
At his side, nine other people are on trial for having helped him to varying degrees.
This Thursday, the accused was questioned about the preparation of this attack sponsored by Daesh executives met in Turkey.
At the special assize court in Paris,
“You should come back.
”In January 2015, Sid-Ahmed Ghlam received a message from his sponsors in Turkey.
The young man, accused of the murder of Aurélie Châtelain and the preparation of a terrorist attack in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne), buys a plane ticket, asks for a visa and takes off, for the second time in a few months in the direction of Istanbul.
There, he takes a bus and goes to Gaziantep, a town located a few kilometers from the Syrian border, a place of passage for European jihadists wishing to join Daesh.
But the executives of the terrorist group he meets have another project for him.
“They asked me to go back to France and take action,” he said on Wednesday.
According to his story, Abdelnasser Benyoucef, alias Abou Mouthana, recommends that he knock in Villepinte station, in Seine-Saint-Denis, and asks him to carry out spotting.
“My motivation was to defend the Syrian people,” explains the former electronics student.
" Against who ?
»Asks Me Gérard Chemla, lawyer for the National Federation of Victims of Attacks (Fenvac).
"Against Bashar al-Assad," replies the accused, leaning against the box.
The lawyer "does not understand the link between the defense of Syria and France".
“The coalition”, mumbles Sid-Ahmed Ghlam, probably forgetting that France only carried out its first strikes in Syria in September 2015.
A "good church"
After spending a few days in Turkey, where he learned how to use a Kalashnikov, Sid-Ahmed Ghlam returned to France on February 13, 2015. The next day, he set to work and bought with the money left to him by his sponsors - "2,000 or 3,000 euros" - a computer to exchange encrypted messages with them.
On February 15, he rented a car and left to do some scouting in Villepinte.
With his phone, he films the interior of the station.
But he notes that there are "only Arabs, only Muslims" while he has been asked to attack the "disbelievers".
He changes tracks, thinks of committing an attack on the Paris-Saint-Dizier train, the town of Haute-Marne where his family lives.
Its sponsors rather orient it towards a "good church".
"What does a 'good church' mean?
», Asks the president, Xaviere Simeoni.
"A church from which I could leave easily," replied the accused.
He searches on Google maps and targets two churches in Villejuif, in Val-de-Marne: a small and a large one.
“What were the specifications?
Make a lot of victims?
Target a place of worship?
», Asks Me Gérard Chemla.
"There was no particular request ... It was just to commit an act," replied the accused.
" An act ?
Can't say attack?
», Resumes the lawyer.
" An attack ?
If you want, ”concedes Sid-Ahmed Ghlam.
"I did not imagine filming the act"
"They asked me to buy a GoPro camera and put it on during the act," continues the accused who was questioned nearly eight hours this Wednesday.
But he assures that he has not responded favorably to this request.
"I did not imagine filming the act," he breathes.
An answer that questions President Simeoni.
"Why is it more difficult to film than to kill?
»Asks the magistrate.
Sid-Ahmed Ghlam hesitates.
“I never imagined myself doing this.
Me Gérard Chemla, he wonders if he would not have got rid of this camera before calling for help, just after having shot himself in the leg, on April 19, 2015.
A week earlier, on April 12, he had gone to Villejuif to do scouting.
Two days later, he went to Aulnay-sous-Bois to retrieve weapons hidden in a Renault Mégane parked in a parking lot.
Back home, in his student studio in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, he unpacks the contents of the recovered sports bags and films it.
His sponsors asked him to "give them an account of what was" inside: at least four Kalashnikovs, "police" armbands, walkie-talkies, a holster ... On April 15, he returned to the 93 recover a garbage bag hidden under the same car.
What did it contain?
Bulletproof vests?
" It's possible.
"
" Panic "
On April 17, he received new instructions.
He must take action on Sunday morning.
Sid-Ahmed Ghlam "panics".
He asks his sponsors to postpone the attack, a “pretext” to avoid doing what they asked him to do.
But they insist because other "brothers" must commit an attack on the same day.
So, to help him, they tell him that a certain Abu Hamza will join him.
With a phone bought in Barbès, he called her and arranged to meet her the next day in Villejuif "near a Campanile hotel, next to the funeral home".
It was he, he has always sworn, who killed Aurélie Châtelain on Sunday morning.
However, investigators have always had doubts about the existence of this mysterious jihadist.
The president also points out to him that the phone he allegedly used to contact him has never been found.
Assures him that he got rid of it by throwing it on a railroad track, just before leaving for Villejuif to join him.
"If there is a problem, you can't reach it then?"
»Asks, intrigued, Me Antoine Casubolo-Ferro, lawyer for the family of Aurélie Châtelain.
"I would have called the sponsors in Syria", maintains the accused, more and more nervous as the day goes on.
The trial of Sid-Ahmed Ghlam and the seven other people tried alongside him (two are by default) is due to last until November 6.
Justice
Missed Villejuif attack: "I could not remain indifferent ..." Sid-Ahmed Ghlam recounts his express radicalization
Society
Missed Villejuif attack: "I think that this second person does not exist", says an investigator from the criminal brigade
Justice
Villejuif
Daesh
Terrorism
Attack
Sid ahmed ghlam
Trial