The testimony of the wife of Mohamed Ghraieb, one of the three defendants prosecuted for terrorist criminal association, turned Thursday into a dialogue of the deaf at the trial of the Nice attack. “Why is it difficult to say things? “Questioned the president of the special assize court to the witness.
Of Finnish nationality, Merle Immonen, who speaks excellent French but with a pronounced accent, tries to answer all the questions, including those sometimes vehement from civil party lawyers, but his five hours of interrogation n shed little light on the personality of her husband.
Where did the couple meet?
From the start of her testimony, Merle Immonen, 54, wanted to proclaim her husband’s “innocence”. From then on, his testimony never ceased to confirm his intimate conviction. The question seems unimportant as it seems far removed from the ram truck attack which claimed the lives of 86 people in Nice on the evening of July 14, 2016, but the court asks it anyway: where did the couple meet? ?
“In Nice, in May 2005”, says this fifty-year-old who defines herself as “Lutheran Protestant”. Nice, really? Wednesday, during his interrogation Mohamed Ghraieb had provided the same answer. Everything would be fine if during his detention (between 2016 and 2019), the 46-year-old Franco-Tunisian, who appears free under judicial supervision, had not told the personality investigator that he had met his future wife in the hotel where he worked in Sousse, Tunisia. “Didn’t you meet your future husband for the first time in Tunisia? “, insists the president Laurent Raviot.
Merle Immonen, motionless at the helm in a long pale pink sweater, closes her eyes, seems to be thinking and answers a shy “no”. “I sense a hesitation in your remarks,” comments the president. “Maybe it’s another woman…” she replied.
“I know my husband”
Throughout her interrogation, she will continue to minimize the role of her husband. “Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel (the driver of the ram truck) was just an acquaintance, not a friend,” says Merle Immonen. “He never came home. »
Childhood friends when they both lived in Tunisia, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel and Mohamed Ghraieb met in Nice in the early 2010s. In addition to numerous telephone exchanges, the investigators noted that Mohamed Ghraieb had traveled aboard the truck of the terrorist three days before the attack.
Mohamed Ghraieb is also suspected of having participated in the preparation of the attack by providing a “disused handgun” to the future killer of the Promenade des Anglais. The accused has always denied this and has constantly denied having knowledge of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s plans for an attack.
“I know my husband. Trafficking in arms, no”, maintains the woman interviewed. If the couple bought a car from Mohamed Lahouaij-Bouhlel the day before the attack, it was only “because it was a good deal”, she said.
” It shocks me “
When the president reminds him that the investigators found in Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s cell phone, two SMS, in Arabic, dated January 10, 2015 from Mohamed Ghraieb’s phone approving the attacks against Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher, the wife of one of the defendants replies: “That doesn’t look like my husband”. “Is it really him who sent this message? “, she asks.
“We knew a person who helped us with a move, who gave us a bicycle saddle when we stole my husband’s and from whom we bought a car… And for that we are terrorists! (…) It shocks me”, she is indignant.
But what will shock the civil parties is his response to a lawyer’s question: “As a hypnotherapist, have you received victims of the attack? “. Merle Immonen hesitates and answers “yes”. “Did you tell them that you were the wife of one of the defendants? “, continues the lawyer. “No”, breathes the witness. A murmur of indignation runs through the courtroom.
The interrogation of Mohamed Ghraieb must end on Friday with the examination on the merits of his involvement in the attack.