Mohamed Abrini assures that Salah Abdeslam took his place on November 13, 2015
Courtroom sketch showing Salah Abdeslam (right), Mohamed Abrini (center), at the start of the trial for the November 13 attacks.
AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ
Text by: Nathanaël Vittrant |
Marine de La Moissonnière Follow
6 mins
At the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, one of the defendants, Mohamed Abrini, admitted on Tuesday March 29 that he should have participated in the attacks.
When he refused, Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the commandos, replaced him, he said.
"The man in the hat", who had abandoned his trolley of explosives during the attacks in Brussels in March 2016, would therefore have twice given up on dying.
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“
You are right, Mr. President, lower the masks!
Standing in the box, Mohamed Abrini removes the piece of fabric covering his thin black beard, as Jean-Louis Périès offers him, and continues: “
I say that because we all wear masks and there comes a day when he difficult to remove without tearing the skin.
But I hope that today we will move forward a little.
As promised last week, the 37-year-old Belgian delivers some revelations amidst a lot of inconsistencies.
He confirms that he must have been part of the jihadist commandos which killed 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis.
►Also read: November 13 trial: Mohamed Abrini confirms that he should have been part of the commando
He thinks he must have been on the terraces, armed with a Kalashnikov, but cannot say so because Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the coordinator of the attacks, who informed him at the beginning of September that he was going to take part in a attack, never gave him any details, neither on the date nor on the targets.
He just knows that it is France that is targeted.
Mohamed Abrini does not dare say no to his friend to whom he feels indebted.
“I owe him a lot.
He was the one who picked up my brother's body in Syria and had it buried.
But in his head, it's been clear from the start, he says: there's no question of shooting at unarmed people in the street.
“
I knew how it was going to end
”
The Belgian still participates in the preparations, accompanies the Abdeslam brothers to rent hideouts and cars, without taking any precautions to hide.
He even went by car with the jihadist commandos to the Paris suburbs and left for Brussels in an improvised manner - by taxi - the day before the attacks.
It was to "
say goodbye to them
", he justifies himself.
“
Those were our last moments together.
I knew how it was going to end.
»
A few days earlier, on November 8 or 9, Mohamed Abrini told Brahim Abdeslam, a future terrace suicide bomber, that he would not participate in the attacks.
He also tries to make Abdelhamid Aaboud understand it.
But this one does not give up convincing him, thinks that he will obey him, explains awkwardly Mohamed Abrini to the Court and to the public prosecutor who have great difficulty in believing his version of the confused facts.
"
You understand that there are many elements that suggest that you behave as one of the future perpetrators of the attacks
," the Advocate General told him.
"
I can confirm it, but I can't give you an explanation...
" Mohamed Abrini simply replies.
It is a civil party lawyer who ends up asking him if he has not simply given up at the last moment and shown "
cowardice
".
Mohamed Abrini refuses to answer.
He repeats that he could never have shot unarmed people.
“
A giant step
” which struggles to convince
"It's a sequence that advances the manifestation of the truth a little", wants to believe his lawyer Me Marie Violleau at the microphone of
RFI
.
At the hearing, she even speaks of “
giant steps
”.
“
You don't go from a black version to a white version of the snap of a finger
,” she explains afterwards.
“
Mohamed Abrini is a human being, it's a journey that is made little by little.
His approach was to tell the truth, we knew that was not going to be enough because the truth everyone has the impression of holding it.
»
That is not actually enough to convince Dominique Kielemoes who lost her son at the Belle Equipe bar, now vice-president of the “13onze15” association.
“
We're getting closer to the truth
,” she concedes, but “
when he says he didn't know anything, that he had no details, it's not very likely.
He must know more than what he is saying
”.
The civil parties also angry to have heard Mohamed Abrini imply that his non-participation had saved lives speaking
of "glass half full
".
"Inaudible" for Philippe Dupeyron, president of "13onze15".
“
We find it very difficult to see the glass half full, because for us, the glass is empty, indefinitely empty.
“During the hearing, Me Sylvie Topaloff, lawyer for civil parties, challenges the accused:”
You have seen the Kalashnikovs, the explosive vests, you know what is being prepared.
When you leave the band before returning to Brussels, does it cross your mind for a second that what you disapprove of can be avoided?
"
It's complicated
," begins Mohamed Abrini.
Then: “
That's a very good question.
I do not know.
»
“
You will ask him tomorrow
”
Mohamed Abrini also prepared the hearing of Salah Abdeslam scheduled for Wednesday, saying that the latter took his place in the commandos, probably at the request of Brahim, this big brother with the "
big voice
" to whom it was so difficult not to obey.
The man strives to clear his childhood friend.
According to him, Salah Abdeslam's initial plan was to go to Syria, not to participate in November 13.
“
Mr. Advocate General, I tell you straight in the face: I saw everyone's determination, and I didn't see that in Salah Abdeslam.
“A thesis which does not convince the Court, especially since Abrini has all the trouble in the world to justify the inconsistencies, starting with their presence at both in the hideouts of Seine-Saint-Denis.
In any case, he does not budge, Salah Abdeslam on November 13 gave up, regardless of whether his explosive vest worked or not, especially he tells us that a lighter would have been enough to explode load.
To the Court's many questions about his contradictions, he tirelessly replied: "
You will ask him tomorrow
".
►Also read: November 13 trial: the last hours before the horror
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