“
I drew all the strength I had in me to stay as calm as possible.
I looked the Kouachi brothers in the eye, like the goalkeeper at the moment of a penalty. "
On January 9, 2015, two days after the
Charlie Hebdo
massacre
and the assassination of policeman Ahmed Merabet, the two terrorists on the run, armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket launcher, burst into the city at 8:30 a.m. printing works of Michel Catalano, in Dammartin-en-Goële, in Seine-et-Marne.
To read also:
Michel Catalano, an ordinary "hero"
A great sportsman, a fan among others of field hockey, he baptized his company CTD for "Création-Tendance-Découverte".
Why do the Islamist killers meet that day in this small town, 40 km north-east of Paris?
We'll never know.
On their hostage, whom they believe to be alone and who offers them coffee, they inflict an amphigouri in which it is about Michel Onfray, al-Qaida in Yemen and sacred texts
The term hero has become so overused that one hesitates to cast it on Mr. Catalano who, however, is a true one.
In a fraction of a second, understanding who has just entered his print shop, he orders his young employee, Lilian, to hide.
He thinks he's going to die.
He wants Lilian to get out of it: “
As long as he was inside, I was freediving.
"
Saïd Kouachi, the little one, and his brother Chérif, the big one, are excited.
They left twelve corpses behind them in the 11th arrondissement.
Now they want to do battle with the police and die like martyrs.
On their hostage, whom they believe to be alone and who offers them coffee, they inflict an amphiguri in which it is about Michel Onfray, al-Qaida in Yemen and sacred texts: "
Read the Koran, that's good. , you will see, it is the fault of the Jews
”.
He barely listens.
He trembles for Lilian.
A terrible ordeal
A first patrol of gendarmes arrives.
The killers, who ordered their prisoner to call 17 to signal their presence, go out, shoot, a soldier retaliates: Chérif Kouachi, hit in the neck, creeps back to the factory.
"
Sir, where are you?"
Said shouts.
"
I'm going to die,
" moans the injured man.
"No, we haven't finished,"
galvanizes his brother.
And here is the printer who heals the jihadist, with the fear that Lilian is discovered.
He asks to go away, thinking that the assassins will follow him out of the building to face the more and more numerous gendarmes: "
No, you are going to be ignited"
, forbids Chérif Kouachi.
The first bandage does not hold, he makes a second, too tight, then a third.
There,
"the little one said to me:
'Go ahead'
".
It is around 1:30 pm The trio come down the stairs, the printer comes out with his hands raised.
But the two fanatics shut themselves up in its premises.
At 4:50 p.m., the terrorists rush outside, firing, the gendarmes riddle them with bullets.
Lilian is safe and sound.
It is only then that his boss allows himself to breathe.
But the ordeal was so terrible that the backlash left him knocked out.
To read also:
At the trial "Charlie", the suffering still alive of the relatives of the police officer Ahmed Merabet
The assault destroyed the business that Michel Catalano, son of modest Italian immigrants, had spent years building with his wife.
The Republic, never stingy with ribbons, gives him the Legion of Honor, he is proud of it, but the assurances, he laments, have not been up to the task.
We had to rebuild everything, get into heavy debt.
At the helm, the one who was able to stand up to the Kouachi brothers struggles not to collapse.
His voice often escapes in the treble.
But he remains standing.
“At the end of 2014
, sighs this extraordinary man,
I had promised my wife that, finally, we would take a break.
We were thinking of buying a country house. ”
At trial, the addition of Anne Hidalgo's hearing arouses tensions and incomprehension
A new hearing schedule caused an incident on Wednesday morning.
The president has indeed added for September 21, by virtue of his discretionary power, the hearing as a witness of the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.
"Who asked for it?
Why?"
, astonished Me Pugliesi, of the defense.
"What did she witness?"
, jumped Mr. Cechman, civil party.
The request comes from Me Klugman, civil party (and former deputy of Ms. Hidalgo), on behalf of SOS-Racisme.
In a letter addressed to the president during the day, which
Le Figaro
was able to consult, Me Klugman underlines that the hearing of the elected official had already been requested, without success, in writing, with a copy to the prosecution, on August 26.
He justifies this new approach in particular by the fact that the buildings housing
Charlie Hebdo
and the Hyper Cacher
“belong indirectly”
to the city.
The president will decide after analyzing this letter.
