November 13 trial: "Hope, for guys like me, is dangerous"

Courtroom sketch showing Osama Krayem, one of the accused in the attacks of November 13, 2015, during the trial at the Paris courthouse, November 4, 2021. AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ

Text by: Nathanaël Vittrant

4 mins

The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015 continues before the special assize court of Paris.

The court continues to be interested in the events that took place in the weeks preceding the attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis, in the preparations for the attacks.

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From our special envoy to the Special Assize Court of Paris,

For once, Osama Krayem graced the court with his presence.

Dressed in a gray hooded sweater, from which his long brown hair overflows, the 30-year-old Swede, who has been sulking at the hearings for weeks, let it be known through his interpreter that he will not answer questions.

He is, however, one of those who spoke the most during the investigation, but in early January, the one whom the prosecution considers to be an executive of the Islamic State group had a letter read in which he said he

.

Same thing for Sofien Ayari.

The Tunisian spoke at length in early February to

, the choices that led him to go and fight in Syria and why he had accepted "

" on the European continent.

He had done it for the victims, he had explained. 

“Just one more version”

“ 

 ,” he says today.

"

 »

At the invitation of his lawyer, he specifies: " 

[for his participation in a shooting with the police during Salah Abdeslam's run, editor's note],

»

Sofien Ayari, who would have given up at the last minute to blow himself up in the Brussels metro, will also be in the box in Belgium from October 10.

"

 »

We will therefore not know more about the stays of the two jihadists in the various hideouts where the attacks were prepared, that of rue Henri Bergé in Schaerbeek in particular, where the explosive belts of the November 13 commandos were allegedly made.

DNA trace on a Kalashnikov

We will learn at least one thing from the expert questioned before the two accused: a trace of Osama Krayem's DNA was found on one of the Kalashnikovs used by the terrorists.

But on an area only accessible when the weapon is disassembled.

His lawyer questions the expert: could this trace come from a garment worn by the jihadist which would have been used to clean the weapon?

It is a possibility, answers the specialist.

Osama Krayem's second lawyer also questions him: no DNA trace of his client was found on the material used to make the explosive belts.

The expert's answer, this time, will disappoint him: it doesn't prove anything, one way or the other.

Yassine Atar, voluble among the silent

Comes the turn of Yassine Atar.

He is as talkative as his two co-defendants are silent.

The ex-car salesman jumped up to answer, without always giving the court time to finish his questions, quoting the file that for six years with his lawyers he has been tweaking in all directions.

He is

, considered to be the sponsor of the November 13 attacks, the cousin of the Bakkrawi brothers who blew themselves up at Brussels airport in March 2016. But he is convinced that he has nothing to do in the box and nothing to do in prison.

His sister and uncle had already portrayed him as a bon vivant far removed from radical Islam.

The court nevertheless wondered about a stay in Verviers on the evening of September 19, 2015. Verviers, where his cousin, Khalid El Bakkraoui, was then, while at the same time the three Bataclan terrorists arrived in Belgium after a long journey of Syria to Europe.

Yassine Attar stampedes, swears he has never seen his cousin in Verviers.

The president insists with regard to the contradictory statements of other actors in the case: "

 Yassine Atar replies tit for tat: “ 

 » 

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• Trial of the attacks of November 13

• Justice

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