"You absolutely want a culprit, but it won't be me"

Ali Riza Polat is the only accused present in the box to be suspected of complicity in crimes.

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• Ali Riza Polat is the only one of the eleven defendants present at the trial of the January 2015 attacks to be tried for "complicity in crimes".

• In the eyes of the prosecution, this 35-year-old Franco-Turkish was Amedy Coulibaly's right-hand man in the preparation of the attacks, present at every stage of the preparation.

• He denies having been aware of the terrorist's plans, claiming only to have mounted scams with him.

At the special assize court in Paris,

“I'll tell you the truth.

It is with this tic of language that Ali Riza Polat begins almost all his answers.

In the light of this ninth week of the trial of the January 2015 attacks, the main defendant - the only one to be sent back for "complicity in crimes" and thus incurring life imprisonment - was heard at length on the charges against him. against him.

He is suspected of having been the right hand of Ammy Coulibaly, present at all stages of the preparation of the attacks, from the sale of a car which would have served to finance them to the acquisition of weapons.

"How can I be complicit in these facts, with people I have never seen?

», Thunders this Franco-Turk of 35 years, short hair and slightly overweight.

If, since the opening of the trial, Ali Riza Polat has been used to raising voices and angry outbursts - he has gone so far as to threaten an investigator from the antiterrorist sub-directorate - the man seems more uncontrollable than never this Monday.

Despite his stated intention to collaborate, he takes offense to each question from the court, never really answers it, getting lost in details, multiplying convolutions and screaming - literally - his dismay at being involved in this. folder.

On many occasions, the president, Régis de Jorna, surprisingly calm, tries to refocus him on the debates, urges him to "breathe" or "breathe two minutes", urging him not to insult anyone.

On this last point, the company seems lost in advance, so much the "son of a bitch" and other "asshole" are an integral part of its vocabulary.

"I have been doing shenanigans all my life but I have no blood on my hands"

"You absolutely want a culprit, but it will not be me," insists Ali Riza Polat.

The man willingly presents himself as a bandit who was, at one time, a drug trafficking bigwit.

It is moreover his "shenanigans" which push him to get closer, in the course of the year 2007, to Amedy Coulibaly, a "big" of his city, three years his senior.

"Shenanigans" which, according to him, also caused his downfall.

Throughout the investigation, Ali Riza Polat recognized only scams mounted with the terrorist to pay off a debt of 15,000 euros.

In any case, he assures, he knew his macabre projects or noticed his radicalization.

"He knew I was eating pork, he never told me anything!"

»And this, in spite of a very close proximity.

The investigation brought to light multiple telephone contacts between the two men, in particular between mid-December and January 7, 2015, the day of the

attack

.

In the middle of his logorrhea, Ali Riza Polat nevertheless admitted for the first time to be the author of a short list discovered in the car garage of one of his co-accused.

"Price of 200 g of C4?

Price of 1 kg of C4?

How many detonators (…) 3 kalash chargers: price ”, we can read on this small piece of crumpled paper.

A fundamental element for the prosecution.

But there again, he denies any terrorist inclination.

Explosives were to be used to "break down banks", weapons to intimidate during robberies.

"If it's just a scary Kalashnikov, why are you asking for bullets?"

It's not to scare people, a bullet… ”the president wonders.

Ali Riza Polat gets angry and stammers.

“I've been doing shenanigans my whole life, but I don't have blood on my hands.

"

"Even converted, I do my shenanigans"

Why then have tried to rally Syria, via Lebanon, only three days after the "madness" - so he designates the attack on Hyper Cacher - committed by Amedy Coulibaly?

"I don't want to go to jail for something I didn't do," he yells, gesturing in the box.

His cries redoubled when the president inquired about what he intended to do on the spot, was he trying to rally Daesh?

“Me at the Islamic State?

I'm not even doing thirty minutes, they'll kill me, I don't want to live under Sharia law ”, takes offense this Alevi Kurd, converted to Islam in 2014. A conversion that occurred“ after having had a dream ”, will specify in in the afternoon his mother at the bar.

"Even converted, I do my shenanigans, I will always continue with the girls, I do not want to get married," he says.

Jihadist documentation was nevertheless discovered on his iPad.

Ali Riza Polat claims to have decided to go to Damascus - the capital of Syria, therefore - following the breakdown of diplomatic relations.

He is finally turned back at the border.

Back in France, he left the next day for Thailand, where he only had three days left.

Short of money, he swears, before embarking on a new convoluted monologue.

At certain times, one wonders, are these multiple digressions and mood swings a defense strategy or just a sign that he is losing his footing?

The expert psychiatrist who interviewed him - three years ago now - did not note any mental disorder and describes Ali Riza Polat as a "strong personality, which can sometimes lead to moments of impulsiveness, reactivity, but generally controlled ”, while insisting on the fact that an expertise is only a“ photograph ”of a meeting at a precise moment.

The questioning will continue on Tuesday.

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