Roger Lilien (Isabelle’s companion and owner of the apartment), had agreed to collaborate after a request sent by a relative in the police. “They needed a discreet place to watch over them and listen to them. Roger agreed, but he had to keep quiet about it all.”
On the day of the intervention, discretion gave way to action. “Roger was warned that something was going to happen. He was asked to leave. Just as the gentleman on the first floor of number 32 (where the assault took place) was transferred to the hospital, It’s not by chance. The house had to be emptied.” That evening, from this apartment, the investigators followed the progress of the operation live.
After the events, life gradually returned to normal in the neighborhood, but the apartment remains a silent witness to this moment in history. Roger Lilien, now deceased, had unknowingly contributed to one of the essential aspects of this intervention. Isabelle also remembers an anecdote: “A policeman came to sign up for a dance class after the operation, perhaps to make sure everything was okay.”
Today, the story of this apartment used as a listening post remains a testimony to the shadows in which the fight against terrorism takes place.
