An indictment before its time. It happens, during a trial, that a witness is more severe than the public prosecutor. Less nuanced, too, sometimes. Imam Hassen Chalghoumi is not a prosecutor, but he is a little more than a witness: he himself was a victim of the actions of one of the accused in the trial for the assassination of Samuel Paty, the Islamist agitator Abdelhakim Sefrioui, tried for having undertaken the campaign of hatred which will be fatal to the professor.
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“Without this individual, Samuel Paty would still be in his class”scathed the imam of Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis), Wednesday November 27, before the special assize court of Paris. Abdelhakim Sefrioui is an old enemy of Hassen Chalghoumi. Between January and April 2010, he had, at the head of his collective Cheikh Yassine, organized numerous very virulent demonstrations against the imam, whom he criticized for having taken a position “against the wearing of the full veil”. Targeted by death threats, the latter had to be placed under police protection.
From the start of his testimony, we gauged the legitimate resentment that the witness has harbored against the accused for nearly fifteen years. “My life has been over since Sefrioui entered my life. I am the only imam in the world who preaches with a bulletproof vesthe blurted out, visibly moved. Having a coffee on a terrace has become a comfort for me, I can only do it in countries that don't know me. People put a price on my head at 250,000 euros…” And since the accused has “ destroyed » his life by making him a “ target », the imam is convinced that he is also guilty of having removed that of Samuel Paty.
“This man put a fatwa on my head”
Hassen Chalghoumi will therefore devote his entire testimony to denouncing the “ dangerousness » of his best enemy, comparing the smear campaign he suffered in 2010 and the cabal launched against the professor ten years later. First element of the Sefrioui method: manifestation. In January 2010, he says, the activists of his collective “entered the mosque, we were forced to stop preaching for several weeks”. During a meeting with the principal of Samuel Paty's college, the agitator also threatened to organize a demonstration in front of the establishment.
Second instrument: media coverage. “He brought in foreign media, like Al-Jazeera. My face was everywhere. This man put a fatwa on my head. They even filmed my wife and she was insulted in the markets…” The agitator, in the same way, shot a video and contacted the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera when he took up the controversy over Samuel Paty's course.
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