November 13 trial: Abdellah Chouaa, the "naive" with cumbersome relationships

Journalists stand in front of the courtroom built especially for the trial of the November 13 attacks, in the Palais de Justice in Paris, September 2, 2021 © Thomas Coex, Paris

Text by: Nathanaël Vittrant

3 mins

During the 77th day of hearing in the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, the special assize court examined this Friday the case of Abdellah Chouaa.

One of only three defendants in this extraordinary trial to appear free. 

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From our special correspondent at the Paris courthouse,

With his black suit, his white shirt and his glasses on his nose, the man who appears at the bar this Friday looks like a computer scientist or salesperson.

But to hear the two women who shared his life, Abdellah Chouaa has nothing to do before this assize court.

His cousin, first, to whom he was married for five years until 2013. By videoconference from Brussels, dressed in a white sweater and a long purple veil, she describes a laughing "daddy-hen" to whom she blamed herself just as much for not saying her prayers as for not paying the household bills.

A naïve gambler who is easily abused, who doesn't hesitate to get up at 3 a.m. to pick up a friend who has broken down without asking questions.

His new wife, then, who comes to the bar perched on heels, dressed in a black blouse on which long blond hair falls.

She talks at length about her meeting in 2016 with " 

", about her confusion when learning his story, before finally being convinced of his innocence.

She also recounts the violence of the searches in the middle of the night while she is pregnant, the new indictment of her husband in the Parisian file.

“

“Since the start of the trial, “

”.

“He was my friend.

Today I want him"

But it is the parenthesis between these two women that the court is interested in: the weeks and months preceding the attacks in Paris and Brussels.

To his ties with

, the friend he accompanied to the airport when he left for Syria, whom he picked up two weeks later on his return to Paris.

Did he know that Abrini was going to Syria?

Abdellah Chouaa has often changed his version and the facts do not always help to see things more clearly.

On the one hand, he played taxis without visibly asking questions, on the other, suspecting the real destination of the stay, he warned the police, as he had denounced his little brother a year earlier who had also tried , but without success, to join the caliphate.

“

,” he told investigators at the time.

The court also wonders: why did he hide for a long time that he had traveled from Brussels to Paris and back alongside

, who also passed through Syria and was accused of having participated later in the preparations for the attacks?

"

", he justifies today.

On the deleted videos linked to the Islamic State group found by the investigators on his computer: “

 And those consulted after the departure of Mohamed Abrini?

"

," he sweeps.

After several hours of hearings, he once again evokes Mohamed Abrini.

In the box, he no longer recognizes the generous friend who systematically paid for evening rounds, the partygoer who loved football and girls.

“ 

 At the helm, Abdellah Chouaa cries.

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