Attack plan foiled in 2016: the trial opened in Paris
On March 24, 2016, investigators discovered a war arsenal "of unprecedented magnitude" in an apartment in Argenteuil rented under a false identity by Reda Kriket.
AFP - KENZO TRIBOUILLARD
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The trial of seven men prosecuted for terrorist association and accused of having prepared an attack in 2016 opened this Monday morning before the special assize court in Paris.
Among them, Reda Kriket, a repeat offender, now 39 years old, arrested two days after the terrorist attacks of March 22, 2016 in Brussels and three months before Euro 2016 in France.
A large stock of weapons had been discovered in an apartment in the Paris suburbs that he was renting.
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Five assault rifles, seven handguns, lots of ammunition, explosives, thousands of steel balls.
It is a real arsenal of war that was discovered in March 2016 in an apartment in Argenteuil rented by
Reda Kriket
.
This repeat offender, already sentenced by default in July 2015 to ten years in prison in Belgium, at the trial of a jihadist network towards Syria, has always denied having
planned an attack in France
, affirming in particular during the investigation that he intended to resell these weapons.
"
I only recognize the laws of the Lord Almighty,
" Reda Kriket said immediately in a statement, in response to the president who asked him if he wanted to appoint a lawyer.
The former robber, cropped hair, mask under his nose covering a short beard, finally agreed to be represented while specifying: "
I do not want lawyers to defend me with this law which is not mine, but only on the facts.
"
In this case, the investigation, which failed to identify the target of the suspected terrorists, had begun in November 2015. The arrest in Turkey of two men suspected of wanting to go to Syria had allowed Reda to be traced Kriket via a certain Anis Bahri.
Co-accused in this case, this man
arrested in the Netherlands
in possession of 45 kilos of ammunition, has refused to appear in court.
The trial is to be held until April 9.
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