” Good morning Mister President.
– Good morning Mister President. “
Everything started off pretty well. It was almost 4 pm, François Hollande had just taken the stand and with this amusing mirror game lightened the atmosphere of the courtroom, filled as rarely since the start of this trial. The hearing of the former head of state, a first before an assize court, was expected. At the invitation of the President of the Special Assize Court of Paris, the witness of the day discloses his identity: “My name is Holland, my first name is François, I was born on August 12, 1954…”
Quoted by an association of victims at the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, Wednesday November 10, the former President of the Republic wishes to read, before answering questions, a brief introductory statement setting the framework of his testimony: “I intend in particular to justify France’s commitment in the fight against Islamist terrorism, in Mali, Iraq and Syria, in particular against Daesh. (…) This terrorist group hit us not for our ways of operating abroad, but for our ways of life here. “
In two sentences, the ex-president summarized his program for the day: defend his record and oppose a counter-speech to the propaganda of the organization Islamic State (IS). In the early days of the trial, the main defendant, Salah Abdeslam, claimed that France had been targeted because of the “François Hollande’s decision to attack the Islamic State”, and not for his “Values”. The former president will endeavor, during the four hours of his testimony, to prove the contrary. An exercise which he will get out of without too many clashes, well helped by the often irrelevant questions of the lawyers of civil parties, up to the questions of the defense, much sharper.
“We were waged war, we responded to it”
The terrorist threat, he insisted at length, existed before France’s decision to intervene in Iraq and Syria. And since the chronology is important, the former head of state brings up the first “Trace” of this threat in June 2014, with the creation by ISIS of a ” cell “ responsible for conducting operations in Europe. Shortly after, “The spokesperson for ISIS”, Abu Mohammed Al-Adnani, called in a message to “Punish Westerners”, and in particular “French sales”. “We are mid-2014. We have not yet intervened in Iraq, and of course not in Syria ”, he specifies. A major error has slipped into this statement. No one falls. The witness of the day continues his testimony.
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