what the first defendants said during the trial

JUSTICE – The first two defendants heard this Tuesday, November 5 by the special assize court of Paris, at the trial of the eight people involved to varying degrees in the assassination of history and geography professor Samuel Paty, contested the facts which are blamed on them.

“I contest the facts with which I am accused”said Azim Epsirkhanov, 23, a young Russian of Chechen origin. “I have been contesting them for four years”also said Naïm Boudaoud, 22 years old.

The two young people, friends of the killer Abdoullakh Anzorov, are the only two accused prosecuted for complicity in murder, a crime punishable by life imprisonment.

Hearing delayed after head injury to one of defendants

The six other accused, three of whom, under judicial supervision, appear free, are being prosecuted for participation in a terrorist criminal association, a crime punishable by 30 years of imprisonment.

This first day of hearing the accused was to be devoted to the personality examination of six of the eight accused but the planned schedule was largely disrupted.

The afternoon hearing could not begin at the scheduled time because one of the accused, the Turk Yusuf Cinar, 22 years old, prosecuted for participation in a terrorist criminal association, injured his hand. head as he returned to his cell at the courthouse.

“He opened his skull, reasonably, at the depot because there are places where the ceiling is low, there is work”his lawyer Lucile Collot told AFP. The hearing was able to resume in the middle of the afternoon but the planned hearing of several other accused was postponed to a later date.

« My parents taught me to love this country”

These first hearings did not relate to the facts, which will only be examined from November 20, but only to the personality of the accused.

Dressed elegantly, cream vest and white shirt, fine beard collar, Azim Epsirkhanov, who arrived in France with his family at the age of 10, speaks in perfect French.

“France is my second country”he said after paying tribute to his teachers who gave him “great support” during his schooling. “My parents taught me to love this country”he continues. France is “the country that welcomed me, housed me, fed me”. “It’s a mother country for me”insists the young Russian who would have liked to have a career in the French police or army.

The knife, a gift » pour « his grandfather »

The personality investigator tells the stand of her family's hasty departure from Chechnya after her father was kidnapped by unknown persons. The father will be released but will still refuse to speak on this matter. “Today, there is a certain taboo in my family” to discuss this subject, indicates the young man. The family settled in Evreux in Normandy. It was there, at college, that he met Abdoullakh Anzorov, a Chechen like him, for the first time.

Regarding Anzorov, Azim Epsirkhanov admits that he saw his friend change his attitude about a year before the attack. “But I never thought that he was becoming radicalized”he assures.

According to the prosecution, Azim Epsirkhanov accompanied Anzorov to a cutlery in Rouen the day before the attack. “He told me (the knife) was a gift for his grandfather”explains the young man. The trip to Rouen was made with Naïm Boudaoud, a native of Evreux, and friend of Azim Epsirkhanov.

“We shouldn’t talk about girls

In a white jacquard sweater, Naïm Boudaoud, with a frail appearance, looks younger than his age despite his slight beard collar. Between Epsirkhanov, a strong 1.84 m tall, and Boudaoud, it was a relationship of big brother and little brother. One protecting the other and Boudaoud, from a rather privileged background, providing services to his friend.

“It was give and take: Epsirkhanov protected him and he helped him in his precariousness”explains a personality investigator.

It was in a gym that Boudaoud met Anzorov. He was the only one of the three to have a driving license (obtained in September 2020, a month before the attack) and it was in his car that the trio went to Rouen to buy a knife.

Even if he claims, like Azim Epsirkhanov, to have been completely unaware of Anzorov's deadly project, Naïm Boudaoud confirms having noticed a change in him. “There was no need to talk about girls, no sex, no alcohol, no parties”he remembers. “I took it as a joke”he said. The trial is scheduled until December 20.

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