In almost ten years, these images will have come a long way. Video surveillance recordings of the Qadi Askar hospital in Aleppo, dating from November and December 2013, were first collected by a German NGO in 2018, before being copied and transmitted to the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) in July 2021 , then entrusted to the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) to be exploited, relates The Parisian.
This hospital had been transformed into a headquarters and a prison by the Islamic State, at the time when the terrorist organization controlled a large part of Syria and Iraq. This is where Western hostages, including four French journalists, were sequestered in the summer of 2013. While the investigating judge had decided on December 29 to close the investigation into their jailers, the investigations were relaunched to add these documents to the file. Four cameras thus filmed a corridor in the basement, giving access to five rooms serving as jails, in which acts of torture were taking place.
Combat techniques and Serflex
Three people had already been indicted in this case, and the exploitation of the videos reinforces the elements against them, even if they do not cover the right period, always according to the Parisian. Salim Benghalem, a jihadist from Val-de-Marne and described by the hostages as one of their guardians, thus seems to have “a central position”, according to the DGSI. He appears to be giving orders to other guards, and showing several of them how to brutalize inmates using fighting techniques. Salim Benghalem is now presumed dead but is still the subject of an arrest warrant.
In an extract from November 27, 2013, he is very friendly towards Mehdi Nemmouche, sentenced to life imprisonment in Belgium for the massacre at the Jewish museum in Brussels and identified by the hostages of the Aleppo hospital as being one of the guards. the most sadistic. The Northerner is also already indicted in this case, for kidnapping and forcible confinement, acts of torture or barbarism, all in connection with a terrorist enterprise. In the images, we see him counting and shackling prisoners with Serflex. But the killer of the Jewish museum denies and “indicates that it is impossible to recognize him”, explains his lawyer, Me Francis Vuillemin, to the Parisian.
The last jihadist concerned is also French, and from Val-de-Marne, like his friend Salim Benghalem. This is Abdelmalek Tanem, sentenced to nine years in prison in 2016 for his activities in Syria and indicted in 2021 in this case. He is notably filmed escorting inmates who are blindfolded and conversing with other guards. The investigation was again closed on February 8, so that the Pnat prepares its requisitions.