“We are waiting to understand”. The trial of jihadist Peter Cherif, close to the Kouachi brothers, continues in Paris

See my news
Follow Actu Paris

The trial of the French jihad veteran Peter Cherifsuspected in particular of having played a role alongside Chérif Kouachi, one of the Charlie Hebdo attackers in 2015, opened Monday before the special assize court in Paris.

Did he facilitate the integration of one of the Kouachi brothers into Aqpa?

Now aged 42 years oldthe accused, in a gray suit, white shirt, and mask on his face, gave his identity at the start of the hearing.

He is being tried by the specially composed assize court for criminal terrorist association between 2011 and 2018, the period of his presence at the Yemen within Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Peter Cherif also appears for the kidnapping and the sequestration in an organized gang in 2011, for more than five months, of three French nationals, members of the NGO Triangle Génération Humainitaire.

But it is his potential involvement in the massacre committed in Paris in the offices of the weekly Charlie Hebdo by Chérif and Saïd Kouachi on January 7, 2015, fiercely debated during the investigation, which should be at the heart of the trial.

The investigating judges believe that he “facilitated the integration into AQAP of one of the Kouachi brothers, most likely Chérif”, and that he was “aware” of the “mission” to carry out an attack in France entrusted to his childhood friend during a short stay in the summer of 2011 in Yemen.

According to several witnesses, including Peter Cherif’s late partner, AQAP advised foreign fighters arriving in Yemen to return to their countries of origin commit attacks. A suggestion that was also made to Peter Cherif, who could therefore not ignore it.

The person concerned is also said to have “maintained contact” with Cherif Kouachi upon his return to France.

“Nothing to see”

In front of the investigators, Peter Cherif denied having known what this mission, which was allegedly entrusted to his friend, consisted of.

Heard in the fall of 2020 as a witness during the trial of the January 2015 attacks, committed in particular by the Kouachi brothers Before they were shot down by the police, which left a total of 17 dead, he assured that he had “nothing to do” with these attacks, before remaining silent.

According to Mr. Sefen Guez Guezone of his lawyers, Peter Cherif “knows that the Charlie Hebdo trial weighs heavily in the balance but he will come and speak sincerely.”

“We expect Peter Cherif to answer our questions in a way other than by quoting the Koran,” he told the press. Mr. Richard MalkaCharlie Hebdo’s lawyer, before the start of the trial. “We are waiting to understand […] “How do we leave Buttes-Chaumont to get to Bin Laden’s place,” he added.

Also known as pseudonym of Abou HamzaPeter Cherif faces life imprisonment.

Iraq, Syria, Yemen…

Converted to Islam in 2003, he is, like the brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi with whom he grew up in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, one of the figures of the terrorist network called Buttes-Chaumont (a Parisian district).

In 2004, he left to fight in Iraq and was captured a few months later by the Americans in the ruins of Fallujah.

There, he was sentenced in 2006 to 15 years in prison, but he escaped in 2007 to Syria. He eventually presented himself to the French embassy in Damascus and was expelled in early 2008, then indicted in Paris.

He was tried in early 2011 but fleesjust before his sentence to five years in prison, for Yemen, via Tunisia and Oman.

He spent seven years there before going to Djibouti in 2018 under a false identity, with his wife – since deceased – and his two children, and to be arrested there three months later and handed over to France.

According to the prosecution, during his long stay in Yemen, Peter Cherif “met Anwar al-Awlaqi“, a radical American-Yemeni preacher, a senior member of AQAP killed by drone in September 2011, “participated in the group’s military activities, having notably fought “briefly” according to him”, and “contributed to the manufacture of improvised explosive devices, in the search for targets for attacks”.

The trial is scheduled to continue until October 4th.

Source: © 2024 AFP

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to My News.