The accused broke his silence to reveal he had to be exploded in a coffee of the 18th arrondissement of Paris. He said she gave up at the last minute by “humanity”.
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Salah Abdeslam knows the price of her word and learned to the mint to get listening that he claims. Two weeks ago, he had made use of his right to silence during the most awaited day since the beginning of the trial of 13-November: his interrogation on the night of the attacks. Wednesday, April 13, while the Paris Special Assize Court had to hear her one last time on the post-attacks, the only survivor of the commandos made the hearing into an unsuspected dimension in a sentence: “I’m going express yourself today. “
Salah Abdeslam did not just stick to the initial program of this interrogation, which was to focus on the hours and days having followed the attacks. After six years of silence and seven months of debate, he chose his day to deliver what was too expected and no longer hoped: the first detailed story of “his” 13-November. In particular, he revealed what his mission was that evening: a suicide attack in a bar of the Paris
Before the first questions of the President, the accused wishes to explain his turnaround: “If I made use of my right to silence, it is because I did not feel listened. I understand that the Exercise which is that of the court is not easy. But I think that since the beginning of this case, people can not accept the person I really are. We have this image of me made by the media , which does not fit what we see today, and it bothers. I decide to express myself because it’s the last time I have the opportunity … “
From this moment, the questions of the Court import little. Salah Abdeslam got listening he was looking for. For nearly two and a half hours, he will deliver “his” truth. The self-proclaimed “combatant” of the Islamic State Organization (EI) that broke into the box at the beginning of the trial gave way to a weighted accused, measuring each of his words, calculating his effects. Only his story now has. Salah Abdeslam tamed his trial.
Genesis: “I had to leave in Syria”
To illuminate his version of the facts, the accused first hears back to the genesis of his mission. We are nine months before the attacks: his elder brother Brahim, the future Kamikaze of the “Voltaire Counter”, has just returned from a brief stay in Syria, where he saw his friend Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the coordinator of the attacks.
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