• Two men, Yacine Mihoub and Alex Carrimbacus, are on trial for the murder of Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Jewish octogenarian.

  • The court heard at length this Friday from Alex Carrimbacus, 25, who only recognizes the theft but firmly denies the murder. 

  • While the anti-Semitic character has been retained, both face life imprisonment. 

At the Assize Court in Paris,

Eight days of trial and still the same fog. When one says white, the other says black. Yacine Mihoub and Alex Carrimbacus, tried for the murder of Mireille Knoll, an octogenarian of Jewish faith, do not agree on anything. Whether it is on their relationship - the first considers that they were friends, the second evokes a simple acquaintance - their schedule in the days preceding the murder or on the events of March 23, 2018. One admits having tried to put the fire at Mireille Knoll's apartment, the other having stolen some trinkets and jewelry. But both accuse each other of having carried the eleven stab wounds. And the hearing, this Friday, for nearly five hours, of Alex Carrimbacus, short hair, fine face and prominent features, did not allow to lift the veil on the shadow areas.

The young man, now 25 years old, recognizes it bluntly: he stole objects from Mireille Knoll, before and after his murder. But he hammers it, that day, he thought that his former comrade in detention - the two men knew each other in Fleury-Mérogis in 2017 - was bringing him in for work. Did he suspect nothing when the latter mentioned, without further details, a "money plan", the president is surprised? According to his story, it was not until arriving at the octogenarian's that Yacine Mihoub made him understand that it was a burglary, showing off a fur coat and a signet ring. Why did he not flee, he who explained at length to the court that he was, at the material time, in a logic of reintegration? He sails,asserts that he did not wish to steal the octogenarian while admitting to having been "baited by the gain". And to insist: "I am a thief, not a killer. Finally, I was a thief. "

"I see Mr. Mihoub punching the throat while shouting Allahu Akbar"

To believe him, while he searches the apartment, he hears the tone rising between Yacine Mihoub, very alcoholic, and Mireille Knoll. Both have known each other for years because they live in the same building. "At the time, I considered her a grandmother, she had the age and the character", confides, at the end of the afternoon, Yacine Mihoub. However, according to his co-accused, the exchanges which had revolved since his arrival around the Algerian war, "Jews, concentration camps" fester at the mention of the defendant's late sister. “As I arrive in the room with the walker, I see Mr. Mihoub punching the throat while shouting 'Allahu Akbar'. He then gave several blows, ”swears Alex Carrimbacus. Sitting in the box next to him, Yacine Mihoub struggles to hide his annoyance, sighs,shakes his head.

Why did he not intervene to save the octogenarian, questions the president.

Or even fled and notified the emergency services?

The magistrate recalls that they remained nearly forty-five minutes in the apartment after the murder of Mireille Knoll.

“Seeing what he had done, I was scared.

I was overwhelmed.

I'm sorry, I know I should have called the emergency services, the fire department.

»Straight like an« i »in the box, his hands clasped in front of him, he explains his behavior by the fear that Yacine Mihoub inspired in him, specifying that the latter had made him believe that he had been convicted of arms trafficking. with Russians, that he had a "network".

"Everything he told me to do, I did"

According to his story, sometimes disjointed, his actions are whispered to him by Yacine Mihoub: it is he who dictates the text to send to a friend to cover his tracks.

It was he again who ordered him to continue to search Mireille Knoll's apartment.

When he asks for his lighter, he does so.

Just as he follows him to his mother's house after leaving the octogenarian's apartment: “Everything he told me to do, I did.

“Me Sébastien Journe, one of the lawyers of the Knoll family, is surprised, recalls that at the time he practiced Krav Maga, free fight and self-defense.

Far, therefore, from the posture of submission that he describes.

The file on the Mireille Knoll trial

Under the fire of questions, Alex Carrimbacus sometimes loses the calm that has characterized him since the opening of the trial.

He replied curtly to the president who questioned him about his call to a libertine club the night following the murder: “I wanted to blend in with the crowd.

He gets annoyed when Yacine Mihoub's lawyer, Me Charles Consigny, confronts him with his contradictions between his various hearings, starting with the way his client was holding the gun.

"Do you ever get blackouts?"

The latter will in turn be questioned on the facts on Monday.

Both face life imprisonment.

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  • Anti-semitism

  • Paris

  • Justice

  • Murder of Mireille Knoll

  • Trial