Five years ago, on March 23, 2018, Radouane Lakdim killed four people in Trèbes and Carcassonne, in Aude. A woman and six men from the entourage of the author of these terrorist attacks will be tried during a trial before the special assize court in Paris which will be held from January 22 to February 23, 2024.
Among these seven people, aged 23 to 34, five of them, who knew of his radicalization, are suspected of having assisted the terrorist and were dismissed for criminal association with criminal terrorists. The assailant’s girlfriend and closest friend are among them. Two men will be tried for related offenses, one for possession of weapons, the other for failure to report a crime.
On the day of the attacks, Radouane Lakdim had begun his deadly journey by stealing a car in Carcassonne, shooting down the passenger in the vehicle and shooting its driver. On his way, he had targeted a group of CRS near their barracks, shooting and wounding one of them, before taking the direction of the Super U supermarket in Trèbes.
There, he killed a butcher and a store customer before taking a cashier hostage. Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame had replaced the latter and tried to obtain the surrender of the terrorist who presented himself as a soldier of the Islamic State group, before having his throat cut. Radouane Lakdim had been shot down during the GIGN assault.
If these attacks had been claimed by the Islamic State organization, the justice considered that these claims were “opportunistic”, the investigations having not established that Radouane Lakdim had had contacts with the organization before taking action. .