Trial of the November 13 attacks: Rashid Kharkhach's memory loss
This Friday, the special assize court in Paris took an interest in the case of Rachid Kharkhach, this 39-year-old Belgian-Moroccan accused of having acted as intermediaries in obtaining the false papers used by the terrorist cell.
AFP - ALAIN JOCARD
Text by: Nathanaël Vittrant
3 mins
The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 continues before the special assize court of Paris.
The court continues to hear the accused on the period of preparations for the attacks.
This Friday, she focused on the case of Rachid Kharkhach, this 39-year-old Belgian-Moroccan accused of having played the intermediary in obtaining the false papers used by the terrorist cell, in particular to rent apartments and cars.
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From our special correspondent at the Paris courthouse
,
Rachid Kharkhach's defense has to face two difficulties: he has a bad memory and he has often changed his version during the hearings.
On the other hand, he who shared his life between Morocco and Belgium recognizes that from 2013, he began to act as intermediaries between a network of counterfeiters and potential customers.
Initially, he explains that he wants to help friends from the bled who want to work on farms in Spain.
“
Even if we are not going to lie to each other, I took a small ticket on the way
.
Then, he begins to offer his services, a Dutchman, a Congolese, a woman from Paris call on him.
And then one day,
Khalid El Bakraoui
comes to see him.
“Three, maybe four false documents”
The one who will be one of the coordinators of the attacks of November 13 and who will blow himself up at Brussels airport orders him a first false Belgian identity card.
He accepts.
In total, he admits having participated in the production of three, perhaps four false documents, but certainly not the 14 listed.
Did he know at that time that Bakraoui was radicalized?
This is what is at stake for both the prosecution and the defence.
Especially since at least at the beginning of the investigation, he answered in the affirmative.
Rachid Kharkhach, helped by his lawyers and his wife, who was testifying from Brussels, busied himself with implicating the Belgian police and investigating judges, recalling the pressure that weighed on him, the panic at seeing his wife placed in causes it too.
“Thank you for raising the kids alone”
His wife to whom he apologizes for having involved her in this story: “
Thank you for raising the kids alone
,” he says to her in a choking voice.
He also denounces the bad advice of his first appointed lawyer.
“
If I was radicalized myself, I would have helped them for free.
If I had taken 20,000 euros, 100,000 euros, one could say that I walked on my conscience.
But you think I would have participated in such a massacre, you think I would have done that for a few hundred euros?
“, he defends himself.
The prosecutor nevertheless questions him about a statement that contradicts his certainties of the day.
Rachid Kharkhach launches again into a verse on the pressures of Belgian justice.
"
Except that, you said it during your last hearing, before the French investigating judge
", interrupts the Advocate General.
Despite his meter 90, the accused shrinks in the box: "
If I said that, it's true that there is a problem...
"
►
To listen: Trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015: what defense strategies for the accused?
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France
Justice
Trial of the attacks of November 13