Jean-Baptiste Marty with AFP / Photo credits: RICCARDO MILANI / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 7:55 a.m., February 29, 2024

Five people were killed in cold blood, in barely ten minutes, in the middle of the Christmas market.

The trial for the Strasbourg attack in December 2018 opens Thursday in Paris, in the absence of the attacker, a radicalized man shot dead after 48 hours of tracking.

In this case, four men, suspected of having played a role, to varying degrees, in supplying weapons to the perpetrator of the shootings, will appear for five weeks before the special assize court, composed solely of of magistrates.

A fifth suspect, who had also been sent for trial by the investigating judges, was finally the subject of a dismissal due to his state of health, incompatible in particular with the duration of the trial.

He could be judged, alone, later, and over a shorter period.

>> Find Europe 1 Matin in replay and podcast here

Four men appear aged between 34 and 42

This evening of December 11, 2018, Chérif Chekatt, a 29-year-old man, appeared in the heart of the traditional Strasbourg Christmas market and opened fire on passers-by while shouting “Allah Akbar”.

In total, he killed five people and injured 11 others in ten minutes.

He then fled in a taxi.

The driver of the vehicle, Mostafa Salhane, managed to convince the injured assailant to stop to treat him and took advantage of a moment of inattention on the part of the latter to get behind the wheel and rush off towards the police station.

The four men appearing in court are between 34 and 42 years old.

They all worked alongside Chérif Chekatt before the attacks, helping, directly or indirectly, the terrorist to obtain his weapon.

Did they know about his macabre project?

Did they advise him during his action?

As many questions as answers expected by the civil parties

"My victim clients expect from this trial, on the one hand, explanations on the unfolding of the facts, the terrorist enterprise, the participation of everyone in this enterprise which aims to undermine not only public order, but also the entire society", explains Maître Arnaud Friedrich.

The terrorist qualification retained only for one of them

Ultimately, the investigating judges only retained the terrorist qualification for one of them, Audrey Mondjehi, a former cellmate of Chérif Chekatt.

This 42-year-old defendant, the only one still in pre-trial detention, will be tried for complicity in assassinations and attempted assassinations, particularly against persons holding public authority, all in relation to a terrorist enterprise, as well as for terrorist criminal association.

He faces life imprisonment.

The three others are being prosecuted for conspiracy to commit one or more crimes and face ten years in prison.

A fifth man, indicted and aged 84, cannot be tried with them for health reasons.

The trial is expected to last five weeks.