At the November 13 trial, psychiatrists dissect the double face of Salah Abdeslam
Salah Abdeslam drawn on April 13, 2022, during the trial of the November 13 attacks.
AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ
Text by: Nathanaël Vittrant Follow
4 mins
The special assize court of Paris heard this Thursday, April 21 the two psychiatrists who appraised Salah Abdeslam.
They were thus able to give a psychiatric explanation for the double face presented since the start of the trial by the only member still alive of the terrorist commandos.
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From our special correspondent at the Paris courthouse,
From the outset, Doctor Daniel Zagury summons Hannah Arendt.
“
We are faced with the banality of evil, the huge gap between the crimes committed and the banality of Mr. Abdeslam's personality.
Participating in mass crimes does not require being seriously ill, nor being a big pervert, nor being a psychopath.
It is a renewed violence to observe this each time.
»
Assessing Salah Abdeslam was not easy.
On four occasions, between 2016 and 2021, the two psychiatrists visited him, and on four occasions Salah Abdeslam refused to leave his cell.
It was only last November, when the trial had been underway for almost three months, that he finally agreed to speak to them.
"
From the outset, he set his limits
", explains Doctor Bernard Ballivet: the only member still alive of the commandos who killed 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis on the evening of November 13, 2015 would not talk about the facts that told him are accused, nor of his motives.
The victims "
were only the thingified representation of a country to fight
"
Salah Abdeslam nevertheless shows himself to be courteous, composed, and these three hours of interview will make it possible to rule out any psychiatric pathology.
He is therefore fit to stand trial.
But for Salah Abdeslam, the issue is quite different.
“
He expected our report to present a more human face to him, far from the image conveyed by the media, and the fear that it might be the opposite
,” explains Doctor Zagury.
Who decides quickly: “
Obviously he is human, but he made the choice of dehumanization through his unfailing commitment to a totalitarian system with a deadly project
”.
The expert paints a portrait of a Salah Abdeslam as "
locked in ideological armor
", repeating "
like a parrot
" the jihadist breviary justifying the attacks.
In this configuration, the victims, those “
who drank on the terraces of cafés or those who took part in a concert, were only the objectified representation of a country to be fought
”.
“
And yet, when we met him, this fortress already seemed to waver
”, “
he appeared to us like an intelligent parrot
”, “
his previous personality did not seem completely buried
”.
Because when the experts meet him, Salah Abdeslam has attended the many testimonies of the civil parties, the stories of the victims, some of whom have affected him.
He refuses at the time to go further.
"
He told us very clearly that he could not take the risk of doubt
," reports Dr. Zagury.
“
That if the shell that protected him were to crack, he risked a depressive collapse.
But the mere fact that he could mention it revealed the existence of an internal debate.
The two experts had also noted in their report that Salah Abdeslam would oscillate during the trial between two positions, without trying to predict which side the balance would tip.
“
He is faced with a painful choice, but it is his
”
The court was able to see that they were right.
Salah Abdeslam has never ceased to oscillate – sometimes during the same hearing – between the provocative posture of the fighter of the Islamic State organization and that of a cooperative accused demanding clemency from the court.
Until last Friday asking for forgiveness from the victims
, with tears in their eyes.
“
This trial has the particularity that it is very long and it was able to allow this progress.
But this debate is his, not ours
", summarizes the psychiatrist who almost directly addresses a message to the main defendant: "
The question of your humanity, it is up to you to decide if you choose to free yourself from this totalitarian yoke in which you have dissolved.
» «
Is he going to become again this little guy from Molenbeek, neither worse nor better than another, or remain a soldier of God?
He is faced with a painful choice, but it is his
.
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Trial of the attacks of November 13
France
Justice