At the specially constituted assize court,
The Voltaire Hall, which hosts major criminal trials, is full of emotional police officers this Monday. In the front row, sit Céline Berthon, the central director of public security, and representatives of the Unité SGP Police-FO union, which has filed a civil suit. Everyone came to support the relatives of Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and Jessica Schneider, two civil servants murdered at their home in Magnanville (Yvelines), on June 13, 2016, by Larossi Abballa.
The terrorist, who had taken refuge inside the couple’s house, was killed during the attack carried out by the Raid to free the couple’s child whom he was holding hostage. But the courts suspect him of having been helped by an accomplice, whose DNA was found on the wrist rest of the family computer. Seven years later, Mohamed Lamine Aberouz, 30, is the only one to take his place in the accused box.
White t-shirt, black glasses, long beard, brown hair tied in a bun, the accused is invited to speak before the opening of the proceedings. “First of all, I want to express all my compassion for the families of the victims,” he begins. “I am well aware of the expectations they may have from this trial,” he continues, adding that he shares their desire to “search for truth”. “I hope to participate in it. » Nevertheless, he hopes “to be listened to” during the trial which is due to last until October 10, because “this was not the case during the investigation”. Mohamed Lamine Aberouz assures that he firmly condemns the “monstrous act” committed by Larossi Abballa and swears that he “totally disavows” his former neighbor and childhood friend. “I reiterate my innocence,” he insists, promising to clarify “certain elements which were truncated, unfair, and even falsified” during the investigations.
Radicalized brides
The experts who examined the accused take the stand one after the other to deliver their analysis of his profile. The personality investigator, who met him in spring 2017, notes that Mohamed Lamine Aberouz began to be interested in religion when he was 17 years old. “He considers himself to have a moderate practice” and considers it important “to practice, and to respect the obligations linked to Islam”. The accused comes from a “rather religious” family, adds one of the psychiatrists who heard him. His older brother, whom he took as a role model, even spent time in prison after trying to join the Taliban in Pakistan. The accused went to live in Mauritania in 2010 for a year to perfect his knowledge of Arabic and religion. The practice of the young man, who describes himself as “Salafist”, is “rigorist”, observes one of the psychiatrists who spoke to him. He told him that he “adheres to the principles of the Islamic State” but that he opposes “the methods” of the terrorist group.
The relationships that Mohamed Lamine Aberouz maintains with women say a lot about his relationship with religion. At the beginning of the afternoon, the court heard Sarah Hervouët by video from her prison where she is serving a twenty-year prison sentence. She was convicted of stabbing a DGSI agent in September 2016, after an attempted gas bomb attack near Notre-Dame de Paris. The accused, in this case, was sentenced to five years in prison for “failure to report a crime”. At the time, the couple, who had never met, were planning to get married. “With Mohamed, we talked about religion, life in general and adapting to living in France,” explains the thin black silhouette, arms crossed, which appears on the video screens. Unlike her, Aberouz had “absolutely no” intention of leaving for Syria to join Daesh. “He’s someone who really calmed me down,” she continues, adding that she “has nothing negative to say” about him.
“I know that I am a woman and that I do not have to fight”
Around 6 p.m., it was the turn of his Janna C., his current partner, to appear in the courtroom. The lovebirds were “religiously married” on June 20, 2021. But this Monday, in the privacy of a packed courtroom, they meet for the first time in real life. Called to testify at the bar, she refuses to take the oath. “No sorry I don’t do that. I’m not a liar, I will tell the truth in all cases. » Veiled from head to toe in a green jilbab, she left prison on September 14, after being sentenced to 7 years in prison for a planned attack in July 2016. Was she deradicalized in detention? If she swears to have “matured and evolved a lot”, her answer sends shivers down the spine. “Before how did I see things? It was fashionable if I wanted to commit a violent action it was because my brothers and sisters were being killed” in Syria or Iraq. “Right now, in my religion I know that I am a woman and that I don’t have to fight. »
In his box, Aberouz mimes kisses with his lips. The accused stands up, all smiles. “Can I ask him a question?” » President Christophe Petiteau gives him his authorization. “We are made to appear as beings incapable of loving, but you know how much I love you. » “It wasn’t a question,” laments the magistrate who invites him to sit down. The hearing resumes Tuesday morning with the personality interrogation of the accused.