At the specially composed assize court,
For the prosecution, he is the one who put a target on Samuel Paty's back. Brahim Chnina launched a cabal against the history and geography teacher to obtain his exclusion from the college in which his daughter was educated, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines). The teenager then lied to him, claiming that her teacher had asked Muslim students to leave her class before showing caricatures of Mohammed. In reality, she had not attended this class.
When reading the indictment order, we imagined the father as a strict Muslim. He who did not hesitate to seek help from Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a Franco-Moroccan Islamist activist, to achieve his goals. He who had nine telephone contacts with Abdoullakh Anzorov, the terrorist, before the attack.
But it is another portrait painted by Farah Asselate, the personality investigator who met him twice in detention in November and December 2021. In front of her, this father described himself as “a classic, moderate practitioner who knows how to read the Koran in Arabic.” Brahim Chnina told him that he goes “regularly to the mosque” but assured that he does not have a “radical practice” of religion. “Assistant in his prayers since the age of 30”, he has “always worked with women” without this causing him any worry. He does Ramadan and does not drink alcohol. “Almost all of his daughters do not wear the veil,” continues the investigator, adding that one of them was even “enrolled in a private Catholic school.” The relatives of the accused whom she met never observed any “proselytizing behavior”. On the other hand, they evoke his “wisdom”, his “altruism”, his “dedication” and his “generosity”.
A sister “indoctrinated by the Internet”
Short hair and white beard, thick black eyebrows, gray sweater, purple shirt, Brahim Chnina gets up in his box to answer questions from the president, Franck Zientara. “Do you admit the facts that you are accused of? », asks the magistrate. The accused answers in the negative. One of his sisters is of particular interest to the specially constituted assize court which has been trying him since Monday. The young woman, who suffers from a mental disability, left for Syria after being radicalized. “She was indoctrinated by the Internet, we don’t know how it could have happened,” says her brother. A man “succeeded in brainwashing” him. He does not understand how she got there, when they were “educated” by their “parents in secularism”.
“What is secularism for you? », asks Me Virginie Leroy, the lawyer for Samuel Paty's parents. “It’s the fact of believing or not believing, of respecting believers and non-believers,” replies the accused before presenting his “apologies to the entire family” of the teacher. “I regret what happened. » “Sir, we don't need your excuses here but your explanations,” continues the criminal lawyer.
“You present yourself as a victim of terrorism, do you understand that this could be shocking for the family of Samuel Paty,” asks their lawyer, Me Francis Szpiner. His sister, the accused continues, left to wage jihad in 2014. “We took it in the face, our sister was taken from us. » For about a year, she has been back in France and has been incarcerated. “She is not a victim but an actress of terrorism,” says Mr. Szpiner.
“I’m not perfect”
When he was younger, Brahim Chnina wanted to “become an airline pilot, study for a long time”. But he was forced to put aside his ambitions to care for his brothers and sisters. “I didn’t have the chance to pass the baccalaureate,” breathes the accused who regrets this situation. He took a lot of care of his little brother Rachid who suffers from “a very rare disease on a global scale”. Before being detained, he worked in transporting people with reduced mobility and as a home helper. “It brought me closer to people, I felt good with them,” he assures. It was a great experience, I did it with all my heart.” In 2015, he also created an association to help people with disabilities. He has “often been to Mecca in this context”, but also, he specifies, “to Marrakech, to Deauville, to the Eiffel Tower”.
His record shows two very old convictions. In 2001, Brahim Chnina was sentenced to 8 months in prison for drug trafficking. He was caught while transporting around fifty kilos of cannabis between Spain and France. “I did a bit of anything, I tried by any means to find something to eat for my family,” he proclaims, before adding: “I’m not perfect, I made stupid things in my life that I regret very much. » The following year, he got 6 more months for threatening to kill a social worker. The accused today speaks of “a misunderstanding”. “I spoke badly, I wasn't in my normal state. » He claims to have then changed his life. “I grew up, I matured, I had my wife, my children, I found a lot of happiness with my little brother Rachid. »
