Tears and apologies to end his last interrogation. Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the jihadist commandos that killed 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis on November 13, 2015, asked Friday for the “pardon” of the victims.
Since Wednesday, the main defendant has been questioned before the special assize court in Paris.
Faced with his contradictions, the one who had remained silent during almost the entire investigation clings to the latest version he gave of his role on the evening of the attacks: he was to blow himself up in a bar in the 18th arrondissement of Paris but “gave up” on the spot, at the sight of these young people who were having fun and who looked like him.
In the middle of the afternoon, one of his lawyers, Olivia Ronen, takes the stand for her last round of questions.
“Do you regret not having had the + courage + to go all the way?” she asks him.
“I don’t regret, I didn’t kill those people and I didn’t die,” he replies. “I tell myself … if they knew what they missed,” adds the 32-year-old Frenchman, black beard collar, gray sweatshirt on his back.
It is by evoking his mother that the tears begin to flow down his cheeks, for the first time since the start of the trial in September.
“I would like to say today that this story of November 13 was written with the blood of the victims. It is their story, and I was part of it. They are linked to me and I am linked to them. “, he says then, his voice trembling.
“I want to present my condolences and my apologies to all the victims”, continues Salah Abdeslam. “I ask you to forgive me,” he continues. “I know that hatred remains (…) I ask you today to hate me in moderation”.
– “Think about it” –
He then addresses the three defendants tried for having helped him in his escape, after the attacks, asking them to “forgive” him. “I didn’t want to drag (them) into this”.
One of them, who appears free, will then leave the room with eyes filled with tears.
“I know this is not going to cure you,” concludes Salah Abdeslam. “But if it can do you any good, if I was able to do any good for just one of the victims then for me it’s a victory”.
“That’s all I have to say,” he concludes, stepping away from the microphone. President Jean-Louis Périès suspends the hearing. In the room, no reaction on the sparse benches.
“It’s a surprise”, reacts outside Georges Salines, whose daughter was killed at the Bataclan and who is visibly shaken. Forgiveness, “it is important that he asks for it… we will think about it”, he adds.
“I think he was sincere”, considers for his part Cédric, a survivor of the attacks, who however underlines the “paradoxical” character of Salah Abdeslam, an “unfinished” jihadist who seems to regret what he has done while being unable to condemn the actions of the rest of the commando or the Islamic State group.
“Everyone has their vision of this testimony and their analysis of these tears. Neither my clients nor I were moved by this exercise in style”, loose for his part Me Gérard Chemla, lawyer for a hundred victims.
In this “constructed and polished speech”, he “cried over himself and his friends, not over the victims”, he adds.
At the very beginning of the day, a lawyer for the civil parties reminded Salah Abdeslam that he had complained about the “erroneous image” given to him. So, “how would you like to be remembered?”
“I don’t want people to remember me,” says Salah Abdeslam. “I want to be forgotten forever, I didn’t choose to be who I am today.”