November 13 trial: what the terrorist caches revealed

View of the interior of the Paris Assize Court, September 8, 2021, on the occasion of the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015. AP - Michel Euler

Text by: Nathanaël Vittrant

3 mins

After two weeks of interruption due to several cases of Covid-19 among the accused, the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 resumed on Tuesday March 1 before the Special Assize Court of Paris.

The first phase of hearing the 14 defendants present is over.

The Court hears this week the Belgian investigators who have found and combed through the caches of the terrorist cell responsible for the attacks.

Hearing report.

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From our special correspondent at the Paris Courthouse, 

If the facts judged were not so serious, we might be amused by the ridiculousness of the wigs and fake glasses found by the investigators.

Gross disguises used by several of the defendants to establish false identity cards and rent cars or apartments.

By videoconference from Brussels, Belgian investigators broadcast photos.

We can thus see Ahmed Dahmani, Salah Abdeslam or Mohamed Bakkali wearing these hairpieces.

►Also read: November 13 trial: the Covid-19 interrupts the hearings for at least a week

Mohammed Bakkali introduces himself to the owner of an apartment he is visiting as " 

 ", a Spanish salesman.

Khalid El Bakraoui, one of the coordinators of the November 13 attacks who blew himself up at Brussels airport, chose as an alias: “

”.

The real Ibrahim Maaroufi is in fact a football player, former midfielder of Inter Milan, to whom this usurpation earned an unpleasant police check in the Netherlands.  

Traces of DNA and explosives  

In these caches located in the suburbs of Brussels or in a radius of more than 100 kilometers around the Belgian capital, in these ordinary apartments, these houses in rural Belgium, the investigators did not find only disguises.

In at least two of them, traces of TATP, the terrorists' explosive of choice, were discovered along with bags of bolts and thin white ropes, the same as those found on the remains of the explosive belts. suicide bombers of 13-November. We also take DNA traces left by several of the accused and members of the terrorist cell, on a fork, a cup, clothes...

In their presentation to the Court, the Belgian investigators explain how they traced, after the fact, using telephone records and geolocation data from rental cars, the location of these various hideouts.

They also sought to establish who had come there and when, and therefore what each other knew of the preparations for the attacks.

Key element of this case for the prosecution as for the defense since it is on this basis that some defendants risk life imprisonment.   

“

Do you know where Marbella is?

»  

This is the case of Yassine Atar.

His lawyer, Me Raphaël Kempf, vehemently attacks the Belgian investigators: “ 

 “One of the elements which made it possible to indict this car salesman - moreover, brother of the sponsor of the attacks of November 13 - is the discovery in his home of a key to the building of one of these “ 

”.

Today, investigators admit that the lock in question was of poor quality and that other keys could open it.

This key is no longer considered a chargeable item.

The investigators also wonder if Yassine Atar did not seek a hideout for the cell.

One conversation in particular fuels their suspicions.

The lawyer insists that it be broadcast and translated.

Yassine Atar asks, in Moroccan dialect, one of his contacts to find him an apartment or a villa, but not in Brussels or Tournai but in Marbella.

" 

 " 

 ," the policeman tries.

" 

 In any case, far from the file. 

►To listen also: Trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015: what defense strategies for the accused?

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