At the assize court specially composed of minors,
Alexandre Gilet is not fooled: he knows very well that the imposing case for which he is being tried before the special assize court for minors contains “a fairly substantial body of evidence” against him. “I had weapons and I was radicalized”, immediately recognizes this former volunteer policeman, tight black t-shirt, shaved hair on one side, thick lock on the other. And to add, almost instantly: “but I did not feel capable of taking action”. This line of defense – which sometimes looked like a balancing act – the accused held for nearly five hours on Wednesday. For the past ten days, he has been on trial, along with three other ultra-right activists, for “criminal terrorist association”, suspected of having prepared attacks between 2017 and 2018. He is however the only one to appear detained, presented as the central figure of the file.
His arrest was, however, almost fortuitous. In September 2018, a company reported that a certain Alexandre Gilet was looking to buy products that make up the composition of TATP, a powerful explosive. During the search of his home, in addition to these products, two Kalashnikovs, a shotgun and a pistol are discovered. If these are held legally, the soldier also has an illegally acquired grenade, magazines and ammunition.
“Why such an arsenal? », asks the president. Arms crossed in the box, voice calm, Alexandre Gilet recognizes a “passion for weapons” – which he expresses by shooting sports – and the desire to keep more and more. How to explain, then, that he goes so little to the shooting range? “I didn’t have the opportunity to shoot these calibers from the stand. To use his weapons, he goes to the forest. “I was doing it quietly, in my corner, I had not measured such gravity,” he insists. On a video found in his computer, we see him shoot in bursts, in the middle of the night, on white sheets.
“You put yourself on the stage”
If Alexandre Gilet was initially indicted for “violation of the legislation on weapons”, the investigations quickly took a turn which prompted the national anti-terrorist prosecution to seize the facts. A copy of Mein Kampf and the manifesto of neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Breivik were found in his home. From his computer, photos of chargers arranged in the shape of a swastika were exhumed. A shotgun in front of a Templar cross. Or even him posing proudly, armed, in front of a flag of the black sun, a Nazi symbol. The former gendarme knows it, the image is heavy with meaning, reminiscent of that of terrorists posing in front of the flag of the Islamic State. “It is broadcast in a private setting, it is not shared massively”, he justifies himself, limply, struggling to convince.
At the time, he explains, he was “crossed” by this ultra-right ideology, fed by a detestation of “multiculturalism” and above all a desire for “revenge” after the attacks of November 13. Could his positioning justify violent actions?, Asks the president. “At the time when I was radicalized, I could think so,” he admits. Before specifying that from theory to practice, there is a step that he would not have taken. His co-defendants were more skeptical throughout the proceedings and during the hearings, reporting the vehemence of his remarks, assuring that he was advancing dates for an action. “I had weapons and I was saying things that suggested that I was going to take action, but it was nonsense,” he admits, without however giving any explanation other than his “psychic” impossibility of taking action.
“Just an ultra-violent document”
What about the writings found in his computer during the investigation? In a document of about twenty pages, he details the different procedures for committing a mass killing, also gives advice on how to achieve it. A shooting like the “Breivik crusader” and its “excellent precision operation”, a multiple attack or with knives “as a last resort”… If he does not deny his writings, he refutes the term manifesto, affirming ever published or broadcast them. “It’s a document that I wrote one day when I was quite angry (…), there was no ideological point of view, it’s just an ultra-violent document”, insists. -he.
One part, however, particularly worried the investigators: that on the ram truck attacks, in which he recommends passing the “heavyweight license” so as not to arouse suspicion. However, while he was under judicial control, he just started training as a bus driver. “I wanted to take a taxi but I couldn’t, so I fell back on the bus driver, I liked that,” he simply replies.
If he hopes today “to reintegrate and have a family”, he recognizes that his four and a half years in pre-trial detention allowed him to understand “that it was not worth it”. Today, he identifies more with the “conservative right, that of Viktor Orban or Giorgia Meloni”. And to insist: “I regret having had these extreme thoughts at the time. However, he is the subject of a parallel procedure for racist remarks made against another detainee, a West Indian. This time, he defends himself more vigorously. “These are lies,” he insists. To harm me. “If it is to harm you, it is rather successful,” notes the president. The verdict is expected Friday.