• Thirteen ultra-right activists have been tried since Tuesday for criminal association, suspected of having in particular fomented an attack against Emmanuel Macron.

  • Mickaël Iber, 43, is the only defendant to appear detained in this case.

  • All face up to ten years in prison.

At the Paris Criminal Court,

In the summer of 2018, when he filled out his ballot to join the Barjols – an ultra-right group obsessed with migrants and Emmanuel Macron – Mickaël Iber did not hide his motivations: “To turn this corrupt government over and give France back to the people ".

For this, he says he is ready to “look for toys”.

Understand: weapons.

His level of involvement: 20… out of 10.

This Wednesday, before the 16th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court, the speech is radically different.

Dressed in a black puffer jacket, his hair combed back, the 43-year-old man assures us that he was above all looking to make his "interesting".

Of the thirteen defendants, suspected of having, to varying degrees, fomented a violent attack against Emmanuel Macron, he is the only one to appear detained.

"Alcohol doesn't excuse everything, but..."

“My words have exceeded my thoughts, insists this father of three children.

It is not because we say that we are going to overthrow the government, that we are doing it.

Especially, he explains, that this form, he filled it out during a festive barbecue at one of the members of Barjols.

"Alcohol doesn't excuse everything, but it makes you do some bullshit," he says.

Admittedly, notes the president, but comments of this ilk, he made on many occasions.

In March 2018, for example, he sent a message to another defendant in the case, also a member of the Barjols, to offer him "a delivery of toys: Glock, Uzi, pump, kalash".

"There was nothing," he swears, hands clinging to the bar, in the box.

And to insist: “Do not take all my bullshit literally, Judge.

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“We will pass for terrorists”

And what does he imply when he offers another defendant to "come and play" with him and "Macron", traveling to Morange?

"You're hot to go catch the bitch," he insists.

Mickaël Iber assures him, his objective was above all to disrupt the visit of the President of the Republic.

"We were always talking about protesting, I'm not going to kill the president.

»

Why then propose to "kidnap" him during this same trip on a Telegram channel?

And to specify, for the attention of the members: “Once the actions have been launched, we will pass for terrorists, enemies of the nation.

“Irony,” he justifies today.

Moreover, on November 5, during this presidential trip, he was in Germany to do some shopping.

A key meeting for the investigation

Mickaël Iber assures him, his words have never been followed by facts.

Defining himself as close to the movement of yellow vests, his main desire was to "block the country".

On November 5, however, a few hours after Emmanuel Macron's trip to Morange, he found Jean-Pierre Bouyer, considered the leader of the small group, and two other members of the Barjols.

During this meeting, there was again talk of killing the president, in the region for several more days.

Did he come up with the idea of ​​grabbing him by the wrist and then stabbing him, as some participants claim?

"I just said that I'm surprised that there isn't someone who grabbed him to put one on him," he says.

It is in any case this meeting which triggered, the next morning, the wave of arrests, the investigators fearing an imminent attack.

The investigations finally brought to light a project much more in its infancy than what they expected.

Mickaël Iber nevertheless faces, like all the defendants in this case, ten years in prison.

Justice

Ultra-right: "We are not at the hairdressing salon" ... At the Barjols trial, defendants overwhelmed by the "issues"

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Trial: "Delirium" or real project?

13 ultra-right activists tried for planning to kill Emmanuel Macron

  • Justice

  • Court case

  • Ultra-straight

  • Terrorism

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Far right