At the specially composed court of assizes in Paris,
He recounts this day of July 26, 2016 as if it had taken place the day before, transcribes the dialogues, even mimes certain exchanges. Guy Coponet may be 92 years old, having been stabbed four times – one of which is similar to an attempt to cut his throat – it is a story of rare precision that he delivered this Thursday morning before the court of assizes specially composed in charge of judging the attack of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray which led to the assassination of Father Hamel. “This morning is very fresh in my memory,” insists the pensioner, frail, white hair in battle and gray sweater, sitting down on the chair installed for him at the helm.
“That morning, everything was as usual. With the notable difference that because of the holidays, mass was less attended than usual. Only three nuns, his wife, Jeanine, and himself are present around Father Jacques Hamel that Tuesday morning. The atmosphere is relaxed. The priest is about to leave for a few days off. Guy Coponet celebrates his 87th birthday that day. “Along the way, we heard a knock at the door,” he recalls. One of the sisters gets up: a man wants to come in, talk to the priest. She tells him to come back at the end of the office and he turns around. But as the mass is about to end, the door reopens violently. This time there are two, Abdel-Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, both 19 years old. “They took us hostage,” says Guy Coponet.
“We put on the clothes of the role we play”
If he no longer remembers their faces precisely, he remembers every act and gesture. Barely arrived, one of the two assailants puts on a military jacket, then both make fake explosive belts under the dumbfounded gaze of the six hostages. “As in a play, we put on the clothes of the role we play. For me, they had disguised themselves. Once the task is completed, the terrorists move towards Guy Coponet, slip a camera between his hands. “They took me up to the platform where the altar is, they made me film. “Father Hamel is still on his bench, “meditating”. “They started bringing him to his knees. Knives… Now it’s coming back…” Her voice trails off. Less than a meter from him, Roseline Hamel, the clergyman’s sister, silently collapses on her desk.
Then Guy Coponet picks up the thread of his story. “They dragged him, he couldn’t stand up, the poor man, they massacred him so much. He defended himself as best he could, he pushed the “leader” off his feet. As the other approached, he said, “Satan go!” He will repeat it a second time, in a “more authoritative” way. But the stab wounds are raining down. “He did not move this poor brother, it was over for him”, breathes the nonagenarian, comparing the suffering endured by the priest to that of Christ on Good Friday. As soon as the assassination is perpetrated, one of the two terrorists turns to Guy Coponet. “He said to me, ‘It’s your turn now.’ »
“You are going to kill your grandfather”
At the helm, the man remembers the dialogue of the deaf that followed. “I said: ‘What are you going to do? An old person like me…’” One of the three nuns present abounds: “You are going to kill your grandfather! Words that will fail to reach the determination of the terrorists. Barely catching his breath, Guy Coponet recounts the stab wounds. First the back, then the arm and “it ended in the throat”. Heard on Wednesday, the medical examiner described a wound of 21 centimeters, compatible with an attempt to cut the throat. “Then he threw me down the steps. I squeezed, squeezed. I said to myself, above all, don’t move because if you move, he will finish you! »
For almost an hour, Guy Coponet will play dead, under the eyes of his wife, who died in April 2021. If he admits having lost track of time during this period, he remembers the wanderings of the terrorists in the church , who break everything, who worry about the late arrival of the police. “But what the hell are they doing? The latter, warned very late, thanks to a sister who managed to flee the hostage-taking, arrived about an hour after the start of the attack. “It took a long time… It didn’t take much for all that…”, interrupts Guy Coponet, referring to the blood he is losing profusely.
“Sometimes, the nights are a bit painful”
“It was really time for me to hear a door on the side of the church to be picked up. I was finishing my prayer to Mary…”, he recalls before reciting it in front of an audience hall hanging on his words. “”At the hour of our death…” That’s when I heard the door on the side…” Transported in absolute urgency to the hospital, he underwent two operations in three days, received five bags of blood … If he makes the courtroom smile when he tells of having “boosted the morale” of François Hollande, he admits to being deeply marked and thinking of the terrorists “every morning”. If only by shaving because his scar “is insensitive”. “Sometimes the nights are a bit painful. »
Never, during his story, Guy Coponet will never use the word “terrorists”. He prefers to call the two assailants “thugs”, “wrapped”. “I pity them for not having been able to resist”, he specifies. From this audience, he wishes above all “that those who gave orders, who forced those who came, that these people come to ask for forgiveness”. But he knows, “it’s a dream”.
A few meters from him, in the box, the three men who appear for “terrorist criminal association” do not hide their emotion. “You say you think of these two lads every morning, I call them monsters,” begins one of the three accused, Farid Khelil, cousin of one of the assailants. At the end of the morning, he asked to speak. “I’ve been trying to talk to you for five years, six months and twenty days, you have upset me,” he explains before confiding his regrets for not having done “much more to avoid this tragedy, to prevent my cousin from coming to this church. Guy Coponet thanks him, hands clasped.