At the trial of the January 2015 attacks, an accused "recognizes his wrongs"

During his interrogation, Miguel Martinez denied any religious radicalization.

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• Fourteen people have been tried since September 2 in Paris during the January 2015 terrorist attacks.

• The special assize court soon comes to the end of the interrogations of the defendants during this eighth week of hearing.

• This Thursday, Miguel Martinez, originally from the Ardennes, admitted his participation in arms trafficking in connection with Ali Riza Polet, the only accused present to be tried for complicity in the crimes of Amedy Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers.

At the special assize court in Paris,

"I've been waiting a long time to be able to explain myself", Miguel Martinez blows behind the window of his box.

Placed in detention since April 2017, the Ardennes has - like the ten other defendants present at the trial of the January 2015 attacks - long denied any involvement in this case.

This Thursday, the former manager of a car garage in Charleville-Mézières decided to "admit his faults".

Returned to the Special Assize Court in Paris, Miguel Martinez faces a twenty-year prison sentence.

He is accused of having served as an intermediary for terrorists to find weapons and transport them.

Delivering today a completely different version of that given during the instruction, Miguel Martinez, colossus with a shaved head, notably justified his unsaid by the fear of "disappointing" his relatives.

Suspected of radicalization and placed in an evaluation district during his incarceration, the thirty-something claimed a moderate practice of his religion, embraced at the age of 9 years.

Friendship and recognition

In a long introductory statement, Miguel Martinez remade the film of the seven months leading up to the attacks on

and the Hypercacher.

In 2014, he joined forces with another Ardennes resident, Abdelaziz Abbad, also referred to this case.

The two men set up a tire repair garage.

“It was going really well at the beginning,” he describes.

But in the summer of that same year, Abbad was embroiled in a murder case.

“He found himself in a pretty difficult situation.

[…] Abbad was on the run, many people from Charleville resented him.

I am a grateful person.

[…] I would not leave a friend in the galley and the shit ”, explains the accused.

Especially since Miguel Martinez owes a debt to Abbad.

It is the latter who paid the entire business for the garage.

So when Abbad asks his partner to get in touch with a Belgian mechanic, Martinez doesn't ask questions.

“He needed to do business again, he asked me if I could go to Mr. Karasular's garage.

The accused goes towards Charleroi.

“He started explaining to me that he was doing tires, but that was not what interested Mr. Abbad, basically.

So we're starting to talk about business - illegal of course - narcotics, weapons too, ”says Miguel Martinez.

After several meetings, Karasular, also accused at the trial, puts him in contact with a certain "Ali".

It is Ali Riza Polat, the only accused tried for "complicity" in the crimes of Coulibaly and the Kouachi.

The two men exchange by phone but do not meet.

Another Belgian brought back to Miguel Martinez a bag containing several calibers.

"I was aware of what was in the bag, I will not do the one who did not know.

But the poor quality of the weapons prompted Abbad to ditch the bag.

"He asked me if it's possible to find someone to stash the bag," says Martinez, who does so.

"It's hard to admit your faults"

Since the start of the interrogations, the magistrates responsible for trying the accused have been faced with the same problem.

"The positions of each other are quicksand," laments the first assessor.

Why did Martinez not deliver these explanations from his first custody in 2016?

“I don't want to be involved in arms trafficking.

[…] It’s been a very short time since I understood, but it’s hard to admit your faults, you know, ”the former mechanic justified himself before imploring:“ I don’t want you to judge the wrong man!

I want to be judged for what I did and by what I didn't!

"

"I don't want you to judge the wrong man!"

"

To this is added the shame and the fear of "disappointing everyone", his wife, his little brother, his uncle and his aunt with whom he is still close.

Like others before him, he also invokes a case that goes beyond him: “I rendered a service and I know that it is minimal compared to the attack.

[…] And then I find myself in police custody.

I am a bearded man, must say what is.

I see how it is turning, I panicked.

"

The "specter" of radicalization

The suspicion of radicalization has indeed weighed against Miguel Martinez in this case.

Very little questioned on this subject at the start of the interrogation, the accused urged the parties to question him: "It has been four years that I have been implied that I have been radicalized, and no one has asked me about it?

They don't tell me about it!

», He is offended.

Converted at the age of 9 after the sudden death of his father, he has a disjointed relationship with religion.

Its practice intensifies according to the "trials".

"In GAV they talk to me about my beard, as if it were a disaster (...) we leave the radical movement in suspense, like a specter. They don't say that I was watched and wiretapped and y ' nothing that allows me to say that I am radical "# AttentatsJanvier2015

- helenesergent (@helenesergent) October 22, 2020

In 2012, he went to Mecca.

At the time, this trip intrigued his stepfather, who raised him.

After his pilgrimage, the man said to him: “We have the impression that you are not telling us everything.

We wonder if you really went to Mecca ”.

Martinez gets upset and replies: "I told him: 'I'm 135 kg, do you think I'm going to do somersaults with Al-Qaida?'

We fell out a bit, I went to see my uncle and my aunt to tell them 'You don't have to make movies'.

"Of this trip, Martinez says today to keep an immoderate taste for his native country:" Spiritually, it was good.

But with the application of Sharia law, they believe they are above everyone else.

I have never loved France as much as during my trip there ”.

Our case file

During the search of his home, books on Islam will be found.

Me Maktouf, lawyer of civil parties, ticks on the book of repentance of Imam Mâlik ibn Dînâr found in his library and who "calls for jihad against disbelievers".

Answer by the accused: "When we recontextualize the text, it is someone who lived at the time of the Mongol invasions, it was not a duffel battle, it was violent, so yes he called jihad.

This "specter" of radicalization weighed on Martinez who believes that no one, during the investigation, explained to him the reasons for this suspicion.

To definitively sweep away this shadow, Me Pugliese, his lawyer, questions him directly:

- "Do you think that your religion is compatible with the Republic?"

"

- " Yes.

The Republic is the law.

Religion is something personal, it is of the order of the intimate, and that is not opposed ”.

- "Do you think we can kill to defend the Prophet?"

"

- " No no !

We do not kill someone, already, at the base.

And we don't kill for drawings.

[…] We don't kill people for drawings.

For me, that goes without saying.

"

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