• On April 20, 2017, Brigadier Xavier Jugelé was participating in a security mission along the Champs-Elysées in Paris, when Karim Cheurfi opened fire with a Kalashnikov.

    Hit by two bullets, the policeman died instantly.

  • Of the four men tried on Monday for having participated in this attack in one way or another, only one appears for acts of terrorism, the other three are returned for possession of weapons.

  • All have always denied their involvement in the attack perpetrated by Karim Cheurfi.

“A calm man, determined to kill [them]. This is the memory that keeps Cédric, former sub-brigadier in the direction of public order and traffic (DOPC), of the terrorist who, on April 20, 2017 - three days before the first round of the presidential - opened fire on his company. That evening, he was participating in a security mission along the Champs-Elysées, some of his colleagues were deployed along the avenue, he and Brigadier Xavier Jugelé had remained near the truck. They did not see Karim Cheurfi arrive with a Kalashnikov in his hand. Cedric was hit in the buttock, his colleague, shot twice, died instantly. Another official was slightly injured and a tourist received a stray bullet in the hand.

Like many terrorism cases, the trial, which opens Monday before the special assize court, will be held without its author, the latter having been shot a few moments after opening fire.

In the box, three of the four defendants never even met him.

These childhood friends, now aged 27, 28 and 29, appear for the simple offense of possession and illegal transfer of weapons.

That, in this case, used by the terrorist to kill his victim.

Only Nourredine A., the cousin of one of them, is tried for criminal terrorist association, the investigating magistrates having considered that he could not ignore, if not the precise project of the assailant, at least its radicalization and its desire to take action.

The Kalashnikov at the heart of the investigations

The investigation quickly focused on the provenance of the Kalashnikov used during that fatal evening. Two DNA prints had been identified on the weapon, those of two young men, almost unknown to the justice system and even more to the intelligence services. To the magistrates who questioned him, the oldest of the three, Yanis A., confided to having discovered in 2016, a little by chance, the weapon in one of the cellars of his building. He then opened up to two of his close friends, Médérik M. and Mohamed B., telling them that he hoped to make some money from it.

It is the latter who is suspected of having played the role of intermediary: Nourredine A., 31 years old and 19 mentions in the register for facts of common law, is none other than his cousin.

According to his story, the latter would have told him, in March 2017, to be looking for a weapon "to scare" as a result of "trouble" in his neighborhood.

Hence the idea of ​​putting him in touch with Yanis A. when the latter returns from Mexico where he is on vacation to participate in the famous American “spring break”.

The transaction is finally organized at the beginning of April but Nourredine A. does not keep the weapon: he gives it to Karim Cheurfi, in exchange for his motorcycle.

Long moments spent with the terrorist

The investigations failed to bring to light any elements showing any radicalization of the four accused. But Nourredine A., who saw Karim Cheurfi on several occasions in the weeks preceding the assassination of Xavier Jugelé, could he ignore his intentions? The accused claims that he was just hoping, by approaching him, to coax him into getting his motorcycle at a good price. Never, he swears, has he heard the terrorist use hateful remarks.

The two men are from the same neighborhood and met in prison, without becoming friends. Karim Cheurfi was then serving a 15-year prison sentence for having attempted, in 2001, to run over an off-duty policeman with his car and then seized the weapon of the civil servant who questioned him during his police custody and shot him. A hatred of the police which did not leave him when he left detention in 2015.

If Karim Cheurfi was not listed for his religious radicalism - he was converted to prison - the anti-terrorism section of the Paris prosecutor's office was seized of an investigation concerning him for having confided, in December 2016, "his intention to kill cops ”to a man he had barely met.

During their investigations, investigators discovered, in the days that followed, that he showed up at the Montefermeil mosque claiming that he was looking for weapons and then ordered three hunting knives on the Internet.

Was he able to open up to strangers and hide his intentions from a man he dated regularly?

This is what the Special Assize Court will have to determine during these two weeks of hearing.

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  • Justice

  • Champs-Elysees

  • Attack

  • Paris

  • Terrorism