Gwladys Laffitte, edited by Gauthier Delomez with AFP 11:30 a.m., March 30, 2022

The first interrogation of the defendants of the attacks of November 13 in Paris took place on Tuesday.

The so-called "man in the hat", Mohamed Abrini, was questioned by the court when he had promised revelations.

The accused delivered a version that did not really convince: he had to be part of the commandos, before giving up.

He had promised to "enlighten" the court on a night of terror, he finally struggled to convince.

Faced with his inconsistencies, Mohamed Abrini maintained on Tuesday that he had been "planned" for November 13, before giving up and being replaced by Salah Abdeslam.

"You are right, Mr. President, lower the masks!"

Standing in the box, white shirt, Mohamed Abrini removes the piece of fabric covering his fine black beard, seeming ready for the revelations announced seven days earlier.

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Abrini indebted to his childhood friend Abaaoud

"The man in the hat", who had abandoned his cart of explosives during the attacks in Brussels in March 2016, had hinted for the first time that he had also given up in November 2015. From the start of the hearing, he "confirms": yes, he was "planned" in the jihadist commandos who killed 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis.

Two months before the attacks, explains Mohamed Abrini to the court, his childhood friend Abdelhamid Abaaoud, operational manager of this mass killing, announces to him that he will "be part of a project".

"I don't know it's the Bataclan, it's France", hastens to add Mohamed Abrini.

He cannot "say no" to this friend to whom he feels indebted.

But, according to the account given by the 37-year-old Belgian to the court, he informed Brahim Abdeslam, future terrace killer and eldest of Salah Abdeslam, a few days before the attacks, that it was "niet", that he did not the "(will) not".

"I can't go kill people like that in the street (...) attack unarmed people," said Mohamed Abrini.

"I knew that Salah Abdeslam, he would never do it"

So, as there is "an additional explosive vest", "an additional Kalashnikov", Brahim Abdeslam "turned to his brother and said to him: 'there you are, you are part of the trip'", further affirms the 'accused.

"I knew that Salah Abdeslam, he would never do it", affirms several times the accused, maintaining that he had "seen the determination in the eyes" of all the other members of the commando but not in his own.

The court is trying to find out more.

"You will ask him" Wednesday during his interrogation, sweeps Mohamed Abrini.

If he "gave up", why, asks President Jean-Louis Périès - who finds all this "a bit curious" - is Mohamed Abrini taking part in the final preparations?

Why is he taking his place on board what he will himself call a "convoy of death" - the three cars of the jihadist commandos which will leave Brussels on November 12, 2015 for the Paris region?

Why does he make the reverse trip, it seems "unexpectedly", the same evening, in a taxi?

Mohamed Abrini no longer knows too much, he was "lost", wanted to accompany his childhood friends in "their last moments", he says.

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For the prosecution, this is a last minute withdrawal.

"I tell you, no one believes you, in any case, I don't believe it. These explosive vests, these Kalashnikovs, we don't give them to anyone!", gets carried away one of the representatives of the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office, who "feel" that the accused's revelations are simply intended to "clear" Salah Abdeslam.

Inconsistencies in Abrini's version

Methodically, Nicolas Le Bris points out the inconsistencies in Mohamed Abrini's version - the keys to his home that he does not take to Paris, this listening in prison during which Salah Abdeslam said, speaking of Abrini: "' We received the instructions and he disappeared.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, so meticulous in his organization, would be satisfied "with someone who hesitates? It's not credible, sir. They make you participate in the cell at that time because they have confidence in you", insists the 'General Counsel.

"It's not because I said no that they give up directly", tries Mohamed Abrini.

While repeating: "The roles (of each), I don't know. The day, I don't know. The targets, I don't know".

"We don't have the feeling of having learned a lot of things", regrets a lawyer for the civil parties, underlining like others the "frustration" of her clients.

One of Mohamed Abrini's lawyers, Marie Violleau, sees on the contrary "a giant step" in her declarations.

Wednesday and Thursday, it will be the turn of his childhood friend Salah Abdeslam to explain this evening.

During his first interrogation on the merits of the case, in February, the "tenth man" of the commandos suggested that he had "backtracked" and given up killing on November 13.