“I recognize my guilt. It's the worst thing I've done in my life. I'm very ashamed of it. I'm ashamed of the harm I've done to the different families,” said a voice. trembling Ismaïl Gamaev, a 22-year-old Russian of Chechen origin with a childish face, prosecuted for terrorist conspiracy and who, like two other accused, appeared free after two years of pre-trial detention.
This unexpected admission, the first since the start of the trial, surprised the family of Samuel Paty sitting in the front row of the civil parties' benches. Gaëlle Paty, one of the sisters of the murdered professor, cannot hold back her tears.
The lawyer for the teacher's parents, Me Virginie Le Roy, pointed this out to the young accused. “Do you realize the importance it has for the civil parties that responsibilities are assumed in this case?”
Ismaïl Gamaev, an economics and management student who, according to the prosecution, “comforted (the killer) Abdoullakh Anzorov” in his assassination plan before committing the act, burst into tears. He manages to articulate: “It touches me a lot.”
At the material time, he shared a Snapchat group with Anzorov and one of his co-defendants, Louqmane Ingar. When the decapitated head of the teacher is broadcast, he publishes smiling smileys.
Eight people, involved to varying degrees in the attack, have been on trial since Monday until December 20.
The court did not hear a confession from the mouth of Brahim Chnina, father of the schoolgirl who lied about Samuel Paty by falsely saying that she had been excluded from school for two days for standing up to the teacher she accused. for showing caricatures of Mohammed.
“I do not at all recognize the facts that I am accused of,” said the accused from the outset, who also faces 30 years in prison for criminal terrorist association.
“That poor professor”
With Islamist activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui, 65, who is to be questioned on Thursday, Brahim Chnina is at the origin of the massive cyberharassment campaign which led to the assassination of the history and geography professor.
This first interrogation of Mr. Chnina, 52 years old, only focused on elements of his personality. His interrogation on the facts is scheduled for December 2.
On the public benches, members of his family came in numbers in the hope of greeting him. From his box, Brahim Chnina smiles at them.
“My family is everything. Since I was incarcerated, I have lost a lot of friends but my family is still there,” Mr. Chnina will admit at the end of his interrogation.
The personality survey depicts a man who “likes to take care of others”, concerned about the education of his six daughters.
“I am wise, I don’t like aggression,” says the accused, his head slightly tilted due to partial deafness. “Detention for me has been hell since this tragedy happened,” he complains.
“After the attack against Mr. Paty, from whom I apologize (sic), there were rumors about me,” he continues in a victimizing tone.
According to the prosecution file, he published videos the day after Samuel Paty's course on freedom of expression to stigmatize the professor and designate him as a target.
Between October 9 and 13, Brahim Chnina had nine telephone contacts with Abdoullakh Anzorov.
However, Mr. Chnina assures the court today: “I respect teachers”.
“I apologize to this poor professor who should never have died in these conditions,” he reiterates.
“We are not here for excuses, we want explanations”, reframes Me Virginie Le Roy.
Not afraid of paradoxes, Brahim Chnina presents himself as a “victim of terrorism” by evoking the case of his sister who left for Syria after being “indoctrinated” by a jihadist whom he describes as a “thug”.
“Thug” is the term that Mr. Chnina also used when he denounced Samuel Paty.
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