Trial of the November 13 attacks: diving into the Molenbeek of the years 2013-2014

Arrest of a suspect, during the Belgian police intervention, to find Salah Abdeslam, on March 18, 2016 in Molenbeek.

REUTERS/VTM

Text by: Nathanaël Vittrant

4 mins

The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 continues before the Special Assize Court of Paris.

Hearings began in September and are expected to continue through June.

The Court is currently interested in the radicalization of the accused, and for this it has plunged back into Brussels, in the period preceding the attacks and their direct preparations. 

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For some defendants radicalization is beyond doubt.

Others, on the contrary, show no sign of present or past support for the theses of IS, three moreover appear free.

Profiles of minor or major offenders, who liked to party, girls, cannabis, but were taken on board by their friends or family circle in a case that we feel is beyond them.

Beyond their individual responsibilities, the Court endeavors to understand what they really knew about the changeover of their friends, their brothers, their cousins.

Molenbeek district in Brussels, on a market day, November 2015. REUTERS / Yves Herman

And for that, we had to go back to the Molenbeek of those years... A working-class district of Brussels that became famous because several of the terrorists of November 13 grew up there and it was in apartments and cafes in Molenbeek that these attacks were partly prepared.

For this, the court benefited from a valuable testimony: that of

.

With his Viking looks, he stands out in the courtroom.

A long graying beard that overflows from his mask, long hair brought back to a crest on his skull, the “Mister radicalization” of Belgium, as he presents himself, has come to bring nuance.

► Also to listen: Molenbeek, one year later

Belated awareness of the Belgian authorities  

He recalls that 100,000 people live in Molenbeek and that there is no question of casting a veil of generalized suspicion over all the inhabitants.

But it also recounts this period which began in 2012 when the Syrian civil war intensified, Bashar al-Assad responded with enormous brutality to the demonstrations, the rebellion fractured and the Islamic State group gradually imposed itself.

It was at this time that young Europeans began to travel to Syria, including many young people from Molenbeek. 

Compared to its population, it was Belgium that provided the IS with the most foreign fighters, even if there were also a lot of French people.

Olivier Vanderhaegen explains the relative indifference of the Belgian authorities at the start: after all, Bashar al-Assad was enemy number one, and even if he doesn't say it like that, certain political leaders, with a certain cynicism, were quite happy to get rid of problem young people.

It was when some started to return that the authorities really became interested in the subject.

At that time, in 2014, Olivier Vanderhaegen took charge of a mission to prevent violent radicalism.

He says that it was necessary to learn on the job, to create links with the police services, the population.

He tells of these panicked mothers, who feared almost as much to see their children join the caliphate as to send them to prison by coming to see him.

Several of the defendants also spoke of this period when young people left in groups for Syria.

Abdellah Chouaa, for example, warned the police when he realized that one of his younger brothers had attempted the trip.

► To read also

: 

Warrior and morbid fascination for jihadist propaganda 

The court is also interested in the videos of the Islamic State group consulted by each other.

We understand very well, over the hearings, the morbid, warlike fascination that jihadist propaganda was able to exert.

The young people also came there to seek news from neighborhood friends, younger brothers, cousins, who had gone to Syria.

A population faced with massive unemployment between 30 and 50%, where drug trafficking appears to be one of the rare prospects for social advancement for teenagers who have built themselves with a “tribal” and virile functioning.

A youth, recalls Olivier Vanderhaegen, all the more permeable to an adulterated vision of Islam that families no longer play their role in transmitting religious values ​​and that in Molenbeek, where there are about forty mosques, only a handful of imams speak French.

At the helm, the uncle of Osama Attar, alleged sponsor of November 13, also recalled that we are talking about a period before the mass attacks.

“

, he simply explained.

You have to keep all of this in mind when looking 6 or 7 years later for signs of radicalization.

Who really adhered, who showed blindness?

It is up to the Court to decide. 

► To read also

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