• While the trial for the November 13 attacks is currently being held, the mother of one of the Bataclan attackers is on trial for financing terrorism.

  • She is suspected of having sent seven money orders to her son, then in Syria, for a total amount of more than 13,000 euros between August 2014 and August 2015.

  • Judgment was reserved for March 9.

At the correctional court in Paris,

Fatima Hajji does not deny it.

Yes, she sent money to her son, Foued Mohamed-Aggad, when the latter was in Syria.

Seven times even, before he returned to France, in the summer of 2015, to participate in the attacks of November 13 within the commando which sowed terror in the Bataclan.

But "this money was not to finance the Islamic State or a cause", assures the fifties, long denim tunic and black veil hanging in a bun, leaning at the bar of the 16th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court.

"It was just for my son, his wife and their future child", insists the one who was tried this Friday for "terrorist financing".

His two sons, Karim and Foued, took the road to Syria with a dozen other young men from the Strasbourg region in mid-December 2013. If the first remains only four months there – he is currently serving a sentence for terrorist criminal association linked to his departure – Foued, then 21 years old, does not express the wish to return, on the contrary brings his girlfriend, who will become his wife, on the spot.

As soon as he arrived, the future Bataclan terrorist confided, in a long letter to his mother, "to have no future in France".

However, he does not break ties with the latter, their exchanges are even almost daily.

And are not limited to simple conversations.

13,000 euros sent in less than a year

On seven occasions, between October 2014 and August 2015, Fatima Hajji will send money to Foued, 13,000 euros in total.

Some mandates are around 400 or 500 euros, others reach several thousand euros.

7,700 euros in October 2014, 4,500 euros in January 2015. Sums, she explains, intended to pay "smugglers" to make them leave Syria.

“All that mattered to me at the time was to save my son, his wife and their future child,” insists the defendant.

"But he did not want to be saved," retorts the president, relying on dozens of exchanges collected during the investigation.

On numerous occasions, Foued informed him of his intentions to die as a martyr, to fight in the name of the Islamic State, even assuring him that if he returned to France, it would be to do a "dirty thing".

At the helm, Fatima Hajji denies having perceived the deadly intentions of her son, affirms that he only made vehement speeches in public.

However, in March 2015, his daughter-in-law told him that Foued was preparing to carry out a martyrdom operation in Mosul.

Shipments continue nevertheless, a parcel first then a new money order in mid-June.

"My son, he was in need, I couldn't leave him," she insists.

False, retorts the president: as a fighter, he received a salary and was accommodated.

Above all, the magistrate read her a conversation in which she recounts having seen, on a video, Foued's kitchen overflowing with Pepsi, crisps... Throughout the approximately seven hours of hearing, the defendant was confronted with multiple extracts of his exchanges, systematically contradicting his defence,

“I only helped my son”

Was Fatima Hajji aware that she was helping to finance the terrorist organization?

Did she know that each time she sent money to “collectors”, the latter kept between 5 and 10%, intended for the terrorist organization.

“I was never told that it was forbidden to send money to my son, she swears.

Like all parents, I only helped my son to meet his needs.

Yet her daughter said while in police custody that her mother bragged about sending money to Syria, despite the illegality of the practice.

What about the downloading of two Islamic State videos in January 2021?

“It was to understand their propaganda”, she assures, while swearing not to have looked at them.

Criticizing the false naivety of the defendant, who had "perfect knowledge of the nature of her son's activities", the prosecutor requested four years in prison, three of which were suspended, as well as a fine of 5,000 euros.

Fatima Hajji, he insisted, placed “filial love above all else.

Of reason, of the safety of our fellow citizens, of all data acceptable to our institutions,” he insisted.

The decision was reserved for Wednesday, February 9.

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  • Syria

  • Bataclan

  • Attacks of November 13

  • Trial

  • Terrorism

  • Justice

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