On July 26, 2016, Abdel-Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche burst into the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, killing Father Jacques Hamel and seriously injuring a faithful.
Four men are judged but they will only be three to appear: the last, Rachid Kassim, returned for complicity, is probably dead in Syria.
Tried for "terrorist association of criminals", they incur 30 years of criminal imprisonment.
At the specially composed Court of Assizes in Paris,
He is sitting there, almost impassive, his gaze fixed, his shoulders slightly hunched, listening to the president of the specially composed assize court retrace this day of July 26, 2016 when his life changed.
That morning, Guy Coponet was attending a mass celebrated by Father Jacques Hamel in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray with his wife, Jeanine, when two terrorists burst in, stabbing the priest and seriously injuring him.
He was 87 years old, he is now 92. "If those responsible could ask forgiveness from all those to whom they have hurt, I think we would have won our day", confides a few minutes before the opening of the trial this very pious man who keeps, placed on his desk, a photo of his companion, who died last April following a long illness.
The two assailants were shot in front of the church but three men are on trial for four weeks for "criminal terrorist association", suspected of having provided assistance to the terrorists or of having had knowledge of the deadly project.
A fourth, Rachid Kassim, suspected of having remotely controlled the attack, is judged by default, probably deceased in Syria, in 2017. But this Monday, while the court was looking into the course of the accused, he was in no way question of forgiveness as Guy Coponet hoped.
"He's too heavy to wear this costume"
“It is too heavy to wear this costume, I find it difficult to accept these accusations”, insists Farid Khelil, 36 years old.
Hair pulled in a short ponytail, molded in a gray sweater, this Nancy firmly denies the facts with which he is accused.
He never suspected the deadly intentions of his cousin, Abdel-Malik Petitjean.
Just as he denies having considered going to Syria with the latter and one of his co-defendants, Jean-Philippe Jean-Louis.
According to him, he didn't know his young cousin, 11 years his junior, well.
“I saw him when he was very small but as they moved very far [in Savoie], I did not see him.
I saw him again for an uncle's funeral in January 2016.”
Farid Khelil, however, hosted him in early July 2016, less than a month before the attack.
“If he comes back to you, there is sympathy,” insists the president, Franck Zentiara.
“There was no animosity,” simply retorts the accused.
The day before the attack, the terrorist nevertheless told him in a message that he "planned to do something", "a boom crack badaboum", in his words.
He says he did not take this childish message seriously.
What also of these SMS sent after the attack in which he announces his intention to “avenge” his cousin?
“Were you depressed?
»
Clinging to the microphone, this truck driver claims to have never had a religious practice.
"I've never practiced," he insists, claiming that his father regularly reproached him for it.
Conversely, this father of three, divorced, tells of a dissolute life, which revolved mainly around his many conquests, both female and male, video games and joints that he smoked in large numbers.
A very different course from that of Yassine Sebaihia, voluminous curly hair, small thin-rimmed glasses, at his side in the box.
In June 2016, this 22-year-old BTS student had just dropped out of school, was struggling to find a job, separated from his girlfriend.
He then has the feeling that he has been "cast a spell".
“Were you depressed?
asks the magistrate.
"I didn't put into words what I felt but it was not okay.
“He who never really cared about religion, not enjoying following his father to the mosque, is interested in it then.
Mainly by getting information on YouTube or by following several Telegram channels of openly radicalized young people.
Starting with that of Adel Kermiche, the second assailant of the attack.
Is it for this reason that he made a round trip to Saint-Etienne-du Rouvray, less than 48 hours before the attack?
Arrived on July 24, 2016 in the evening, he left hastily the next day at dawn.
Throughout the investigation, he denied having perceived the deadly intentions of the terrorists, affirming that he simply thought he was participating in a religious course and did not hook up with the two men.
Facts on which the young man, who resumed accounting studies in prison, will be required to explain himself at length in the weeks to come.
The verdict is expected on March 9.
Justice
Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray attack: Five years after Father Hamel's last mass, three men at the assizes
Society
Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray attack: Despite "the quest for truth", the opening of the trial "rekindles the wound" in the town
Trial
Terrorist attack
Terrorism
Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray
Justice
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