“Do you recognize the facts? », asks the president of the Special Assize Court of Paris. To the classic question asked of an accused, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, 65, responds with a solemn declaration: “First of all, I come to bring my condolences for the family of Mr. Paty, whose grief I share,” he begins. he. I have been waiting for this moment for four years, to lift the relentless injustice that has fallen upon me. To clear my honor, which makes my name linked to this barbaric crime that my whole being rejects. » Straight in the box, staring at his judges over his glasses, the man with the white beard says “trust the court to demonstrate his innocence” and concludes: “So of course, I don't admit. »
The tone is set. Throughout his personality interrogation, this Thursday, at the trial of the assassination of Samuel Paty, Abdelhakim Sefrioui responds in a sententious, verbose and not often direct manner, sometimes beating around the bush to the point that it is difficult to understand or not. finish his sentence. “It's not super clear,” President Franck Zientara said during one of them, triggering muffled laughter in the room.
