• On the 42nd day of the trial for the November 13 attacks, François Hollande was heard at length as a witness on Wednesday.

  • Quoted at the request of the Life for Paris association, his arrival is not unanimous, especially on the benches of the defense.

  • On the evening of the attacks, he attended the France-Germany match at the Stade de France then joined the crisis unit of the Ministry of the Interior.

At the specially composed Assize Court in Paris,

“At the second explosion, I no longer had any doubts. This November 13, 2015, it took only a few moments for François Hollande to understand that a terrorist attack had just occurred at the gates of the Stade de France. No sooner had he passed the security headquarters door than his security director had already informed him: shootings were underway on Parisian terraces.

The evening, however, had started under the best auspices: learning that his "friend" the Minister of Foreign Affairs was attending the France-Germany meeting, he had decided at the last moment to join him there.

"I had no particular apprehension, even if I was always on my guard," insists the former head of state, whose summons as a witness in this trial was the subject of heated debate.

Straight like an “i” at the bar, sometimes leaning on a few notes, he did not evade any question during the four hours that his hearing lasted.

“Every day we were under threat.

The 12th as the 14th ”

Particularly educational, the president of the Assize Court, Jean-Louis Périès, took care to take up all the questions formulated by the civil parties, starting with the state of the threat. Was she underestimated that night? Could such a drama have been avoided? “Every day we were under threat. The 12th and the 14th. We knew that there were operations being prepared, that individuals had placed themselves in the flow of refugees to deceive the vigilance. But we did not know where, when and how they were going to hit us, ”insisted the former president.

Admittedly, in the fall of 2015, the dangerousness of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the organizers of the attacks, was known, as the willingness of the Islamic State to strike France, but "no decisive information" made it possible to prevent the attacks.

"The day before or the day before, we had no alert," he insists.

"If it hadn't been for the Bataclan, they would have taken another room"

What about a specific risk weighing on the Bataclan? In 2009, during the investigation into the Cairo attack, elements indicating a threat concerning this room had been discovered. But due to lack of evidence, the investigation was closed. In August 2015, the jihadist Reda Hame, recruit of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, revealed during his police custody that an attack against a “rock concert” was envisaged, without specifying the venue or even the date. Elements taken very seriously, but insufficient to "justify setting up a particular device". “Their mission was to kill, kill and kill again, insists François Hollande. If it had been cold on November 13th, they would have targeted something other than the terraces. And if it hadn't been the Bataclan, they would have taken another room. "

Under the watchful eyes of the defendants, and in particular of Salah Abdeslam who "justified" the attacks by the French intervention in Syria, François Hollande, as comfortable in front of the specially composed assize court as in a meeting, is at length back on these military operations. “This group struck us, not for our modes of action abroad but for our lifestyles here. And the former head of state recalled that the first French strikes in Syria took place on September 27, 2015, a month and a half before the attacks. "The commando was organized long before I decided to strike Syria," he insists. The investigations have indeed made it possible to demonstrate that preparations began at the end of 2014.

Taking care to respond to the accusations of Salah Abdeslam, who notably declared "that the French planes which bomb the Islamic State do not make distinctions between men, women and children", François Hollande affirmed that he were actually targeted strikes. "We were hitting armed populations, in no way civilians," he insisted.

He explained that he did not regret this geopolitical choice.

“I would do exactly the same thing because it is France, because we owe it, too, to the massacred, slaughtered, beheaded populations.

As the hearing ends, Salah Abdeslam, who has distinguished himself since the opening of the trial by several outbursts, gets up to speak.

An attempt immediately showered by the president.

"If you have any questions, go through your advice," he insists, before suspending the hearing.

Justice

Trial of the November 13 attacks: Why is François Hollande called to testify this Wednesday?

Justice

Attacks of November 13: "We did not come out of the wombs of our mothers with Kalashnikovs in hand," says Mohamed Abrini

  • Francois Hollande

  • Attacks of November 13

  • Trial

  • Justice

  • Paris

  • Terrorist attacks in Paris

  • 0 comment

  • 0 share

    • Share on Messenger

    • Share on Facebook

    • Share on twitter

    • Share on Flipboard

    • Share on Pinterest

    • Share on Linkedin

    • Send by Mail

  • To safeguard

  • A fault ?

  • To print