“Did Anzorov tell you about Charlie Hebdo ?” “Never.” Accused of complicity in the assassination of Samuel Paty, Naïm Boudaoud denied, throughout his interrogation, Thursday, November 21, having any knowledge of the terrorist intentions of Abdoullakh Anzorov, the 18-year-old radical Islamist who beheaded the professor of history-geography on October 16, 2020. “I always said that I didn't know about what he did, that I didn't know about the whole thing,” hammered the 22-year-old young man, thin and in a light gray sweater, leaning against the window of the accused box.
Franck Zientara, president of the special assize court of Paris to which the accused is referred, first insists on the radicalization of Abdoullakh Anzorov, originally from the Russian Republic of Chechnya. Naïm Boudaoud met him in the summer of 2019 in Evreux, in a gym, through Azim Epsirkhanov, also tried for him for complicity in terrorist assassination. Has he never noticed anything? “There are plenty of young people who do not shake hands with women, who say prayers,” retorts the person concerned. The latter, however, uttered the word “radicalized” in front of the investigators, Franck Zientara points out to him. “I was in shock”explains Naïm Boudaoud. The argument comes up numerous times, when the court compares its statements of the day with those made in police custody and before the investigating judges.
Like Azim Epsirkhanov on Wednesday, Naïm Boudaoud is invited to give his account of the facts. But if the first demonstrated eloquence and precision, the second lacked confidence. Both versions, however, point in the same direction. When on October 15, 2020, the two men accompanied Abdoullakh Anzorov to buy a knife, Naïm Boudaoud also said he thought it was to offer it to “his grandfather, who collected them”. This weapon, although it was not used to kill Samuel Paty, was nevertheless discovered not far from the body. Furthermore, the accused also claims that the trio spoke “everything and nothing” throughout the day, especially during car journeys. Without ever giving any details on the content of their conversations.
Naïm Boudaoud hit the road again the next day, but this time without Azim Epsirkhanov. On the way, Abdoullakh Anzorov told him that he “go buy a BB gun for a fight with some blacks.” An Airsoft weapon used a few hours later against Samuel Paty and the police officers who intervened following the assassination. After this purchase, Abdoullakh Anzorov insisted on being taken to “the 7-7”Seine-et-Marne.
In reality, Naïm Boudaoud dropped him off near the Bois-d'Aulne college in Yvelines, where Samuel Paty works. “He enters the address. It didn't say 'collège Conflans-Saint-Honorine'. I arrive in a residential area, with zigzag roads. Anzorov says to me: 'Go ahead and give me a lift [jette-moi] there.' He asks me for a surgical mask, doesn't even say thank you and leaves”, he reports. “College or no college, for me it would have been the same, I have never heard of this affair. I have never heard of this controversy, of this poor professor, who was killed by this coward, this scum “declares the accused, who assures several times that the assailant “used himself” of him.
However, the president of the court points out, Abdoullakh Anzorov spoke about the caricatures to the schoolchildren who pointed out Samuel Paty to him. Would he have quickly confided in teenagers without ever sharing this hatred with his friends? “It’s complicated to be super precise, I try to be clear”, Naïm Boudaoud stammers when, in the middle of the afternoon, Advocate General Nicolas Braconnay presses him with questions and also points out his contradictions.
In fact, he gets bogged down in his explanations. “You don't want to understand that I was in shock”, also evoking the “pression” in custody. Like the day before, the attorney general questions him about his responsibility. “I am not crazy to depose a terrorist. I am not responsible for Anzorov's act, looses Naïm Boudaoud, who faces life imprisonment. I am not responsible, because I was not aware of what he was going to do. I'm naive, I couldn't object.”
