Jean-Baptiste Marty / Photo credit: BENOIT PEYRUCQ / AFP 9:05 p.m., January 23, 2024

This Tuesday, the commander of the surveillance and intervention platoon of the Gendarmerie (Psig) of Carcassonne came to testify at the Special Assize Court of Paris.

He was alongside gendarme Arnaud Beltrame, killed by jihadist Radouane Lakdim in the Super U of Trèbes in 2018. 

At the helm, his voice trembling, the commander remembers the hostage taking.

On March 23, 2018, Islamist terrorist Radouane Lakdim killed four people in Carcassonne and Trèbes, in Aude, before being shot dead by the GIGN.

Among his victims, Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame who sacrificed himself to save the life of a cashier, who had fallen into the clutches of the jihadist. 

The trial of seven people, all members of Radouane Lakdim's entourage, opened Monday at the Special Assize Court of Paris.

This Tuesday, the commander of the surveillance and intervention platoon of the Gendarmerie (Psig) of Carcassonne gave his testimony.

“We entered the Super U together (with Arnaud Beltrame),” he says in cathedral silence. 

“Pools of blood everywhere”

"Inside, it's a horror scene. We see a first body on the ground, then a second with a bullet in the head. We see pools of blood everywhere," he remembers.

And then came this proposal from Arnaud Beltrame to take the place of the hostage.

“I refused. It’s not in the Gendarmerie protocol,” he sighs. 

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In vain, Arnaud Beltrame walks in front of the terrorist who accepts the proposal.

Hit by the latter during the final assault, he died the next day.

For the man at the helm, the act is heroic.

The poignant story paralyzes the faces in the audience.

The emotion is so strong that some civil parties even leave the room, with tears in their eyes. 

At the same time, a man enters the accused box.

Full of tics, he is the seventh accused, absent during the first day, but arrested this Tuesday morning.

He is being prosecuted for failure to report terrorist crimes.

The trial continues this Wednesday with the hearings of other gendarmes present on the day of the attack.

In front of a full bench of accused.