It is above all the trial of a bloody, somewhat forgotten journey. A legal meeting awaited by the many victims who crossed paths with Khamzat Azimov, one evening in May 2018, in the Opéra Garnier district, in Paris. Armed with a kitchen knife, this young 20-year-old Franco-Russian, born in Chechnya and radicalized, injures around ten of passers-by and killed a 29-year-old man who was leaving work. The police shots, which intervened quickly, put an end to his murderous journey, which lasted six minutes.
With the death of the author of the attack, claimed by Daesh a few hours later, public action ended. Especially since the investigation will not make it possible to identify accomplices. However, the accused’s box will not be empty this Wednesday, at the specially composed Assize Court.
The attacker’s best friend, Abdoul-Hakim Anaiev, aged 25, is on trial for “participation in an association of terrorist criminals with a view to preparing crimes of personal injury”. In their indictment order, consulted by 20 minutes, the investigating judges write that the accused played a “central role” in the “conditioning” of the terrorist who had established, “with the help and impetus” of Abdoul-Hakim Anaiev, “contacts” with “sympathizers of the Islamic State and the jihadosphere”. “These contacts enabled Khamzat Azimov to take action and claim responsibility for his attack, by the Islamic State, through the broadcast of his testamentary allegiance video,” the magistrates believe.
“I’m going to crash you”
Back to May 12, 2018. Around 8:42 p.m., Ronan Gosnet, employee of a bookstore, leaves work and calls his friend Arthur. Suddenly, as he walks rue Marsollier, Khamzat Azimov approaches him from behind and tries to slit his throat. The victim tries to defend himself. But the terrorist manages to stab him several times. Ronan Gosnet died a few minutes later on the road.
The attacker went to rue Saint-Augustin and attacked another passer-by, a resident of Luxembourg and of Chinese nationality, who was looking for a restaurant where he could dine with his wife and friends. Khamzat Azimov stabbed him in the back and head. The tip of the blade, which was lodged in his skull, was found two and a half months after the attack by Luxembourg doctors. The fact that the weapon broke probably saved the lives of other bystanders subsequently injured by Khamzat Azimov.
The terrorist attacks a young couple, who were going to a restaurant, shouting “Allah Akbar”. After that, he tried to stab a young man in the throat, without succeeding. At 8:44 p.m., rue du Gaillon, he attacked a 54-year-old homeless woman and stabbed her in the face and back. Then, he rushes towards a 33-year-old man who was returning from a dinner with friends at a restaurant and tries to hit him in the stomach with his gun. At 8:48 p.m., Khamzat Azimov took the Choiseul passage, where he crossed paths with a 52-year-old woman. He throws himself at her, beats her and tries to stab her too, shouting “Allah Akbar”.
At 8:48 p.m., he once again took rue Saint-Augustin where he found himself facing three police officers to whom he shouted: “I’m going to crash you. Shoot, shoot.” They ended up opening fire on him twice after trying to stop him with their taser. He dies from his injuries.
A “withdrawn” and “silent” attacker
The next day, Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack on Telegram. The terrorist group releases the attacker’s testament video. This broadcast proves that the assailant “had succeeded in establishing, during his lifetime, links with sympathizers or members of the organization who had provided him with the modus operandi to enable him to make this proclamation of allegiance,” the judges further believe. of instructions.
The terrorist is identified by investigators as Khamzat Azimov, a young refugee of Chechen origin, who arrived in France with his parents in 2010. After living for a time in Strasbourg, this “withheld” and “silent” young man lived with his family in a hotel, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. He had already been heard, in April 2017, as part of proceedings for terrorist conspiracy concerning Inès H., the religious wife of his best friend, Abdoul-Hakim Anaiev. At the time, the young woman had tried twice to go to Syria to join Daesh.
“Primary role in the conditioning of his best friend”
For the prosecution, Abdoul-Hakim Anaiev had for a long time been an “active member” of pro-Daesh propaganda on Twitter, where he praised “the merits of martyrdom”. After the arrest of Inès H. in Hungary in 2017, he even charged Khamzat Azimov with erasing all traces of his propagandist activities on social networks, which were subsequently resumed.
By virtually then physically presenting other radicalized individuals to Khamzat Azimov during “meetings, which could be described as conspiratorial”, the accused had “a primordial role in the conditioning of his best friend”, insist the investigating magistrates. “In the absence of proving a prior agreement” between Khamzat Azimov and Abdoul-Hakim Anaiev, the elements – sometimes disturbing – collected by the investigators “demonstrate total adherence to the act of his best friend”, they further explain in their order of indictment.
A risk of “conflation” with the Arras attack
“This trial is important for my clients because they had the feeling of having been victims of an attack, particularly terrifying, which was somewhat forgotten. It’s a little difficult for them even though it had extremely serious consequences for them,” explains 20 minutes Me Pauline Ragot, lawyer for several victims, including the Luxembourg resident and the National Federation of Victims of Attacks and Collective Accidents (Fenvac). “They make the distinction and do not confuse the accused with the terrorist who committed the act. They know very well who slashed their faces, who terrorized them, who stabbed them. They know it’s Azimov and that he’s dead. On the other hand, they know – it is their conviction – that without the accused, this attack would perhaps not have taken place. Today, they want to know, to understand how this act could have taken place. »
Contacted by 20 minutes, Abdoul-Hakim Anaiev’s lawyer, Me Florian Lastelle, did not wish to make any comment before the opening of the trial. After the assassination of a teacher in a high school in Arras, on October 13, by a former student of Russian nationality, the criminal lawyer “hopes that there will be no confusion of fact in the press” with this attack . Abdoul-Hakim Anaiev’s trial is scheduled to last until October 31.