He is the father of one of the alleged accomplices of Samuel Paty's assassin.
Adem E., 37, has not slept for several days when we meet him at the terrace of l'Espress, a Turkish café in the popular Madeleine district in Evreux (Eure).
It was he who advised his son Azim, 19, to go to the police on Friday evening a few hours after the attack committed by Abdoullakh Anzorov in front of the college of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines).
On Wednesday evening, Azim was indicted for "complicity in assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise" and placed in pre-trial detention.
His father, who arrived in France in 2010, tells us what his eldest child told him on Friday evening, just before being taken into police custody.
At the moment when the young man understands that he is immersed, in spite of himself according to his father, in a case of terrorism.
Azim and Abdoullakh are childhood friends.
The two boys grew up in La Madeleine.
Last Thursday, the two friends, accompanied by Naim B., a third friend, went to Rouen (Seine-Maritime), 60 kilometers from Évreux.
“They spent the day together, they went to the kebab, they had coffee,” relates the Chechen, in his pronounced Eastern accent.
“In a store, Abdoullakh bought a large knife.
He told my son and Naim that it was a gift for his grandfather ”.
The two young adults do not tick.
But, a little later, in the car, the future terrorist opens the box containing the blade.
"Why are you touching it, if it's a present for your grandfather?"
»Asks Azim.
No answer.
That evening, Naim and Abdoullakh return to Evreux, Azim stays in Rouen, with his girlfriend.
"I understood that he was afraid"
Still according to Adem's story, on Friday morning, Abdoullakh contacted Azim again.
Without knowing why, - "I thought there was some confusion", imagines Adem - the future terrorist has returned to Rouen: Azim, who has no time to devote to his friend, him pays for a return trip to Evreux by carpooling.
Back in Evreux that afternoon, Abdoullakh Anzorov contacted Naim this time and repeatedly insisted that he drop him off in Paris.
The young man gives in and drops off his friend not far from the college of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
At around 5 p.m., the 18-year-old terrorist attacks Samuel Paty.
His two friends learn about it a few hours later via social networks.
Azim calls his father shortly after 7:30 p.m.
“I could tell in his voice that there was a problem.
I understood that my son was afraid, ”recalls Adem, who then organizes a meeting with Naim's mother and the two boys.
“I told Azim to shut up and asked Naim to tell me about it.
He was crying and he said the same thing as my son.
I understood that they were telling the truth ”.
The two teenagers swear to their parents: they did not know the terrible project of their friend Abdoullakh.
"If he had such an idea in mind, why did he come to see us?"
They lament.
At around 9:30 p.m., the two families send their sons to the Evreux police station.
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It is 5 am the next morning when the investigators rush into the four-room apartment in La Madeleine where Adem lives with his wife and four other children.
“My wife and I were handcuffed.
My children were put in a room.
And they brought Azim up to the apartment.
It was the last time that I saw him ", details the Chechen who nevertheless says to have" had his door broken down several times in Russia ".
"My son is not a radical"
Along with five other people, Azim and Naim are indicted for "complicity in terrorist assassination" and placed in pre-trial detention.
"At this stage, they dispute having had knowledge of their friend's deadly plans," said the anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard on Wednesday afternoon.
Still stunned, Adem turns in circles at the Espresso cafe.
The Chechen cannot help but think of the murder at the end of September of one of his compatriots in this disadvantaged district of Evreux.
On this same terrace where the father of the family is installed, a man was shot dead with a handgun.
The author of the shooting is still at large and this crime has since fed into the conversations of the close-knit Chechen community in the city.
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But this time, the thirty-something, a mechanic by profession, did not dare to get in touch with the parents of Abdoullakh Anzorov, whom he "saw growing up".
"What am I going to tell them?"
He breathes.
Adem wants everyone to know: “My son is not a radical.
We are Muslims but he does not say all his prayers, even if we remind him ”.
Not far from Place de la Madeleine, in the building where the terrorist's family lives, not a sound.
The parents of the young man, shot Friday evening by the police, were released from custody Tuesday evening but on the second floor of the modest residence, no one answers the door of the apartment.
In a statement, the Anzorov family says it is “devastated” and under the weight of “grief, shame, incomprehension and shock”.
Relatives "dare not imagine what the victim's family felt" and "keep wondering when they could have seen or foreseen this".
According to them, “Abdoullakh was manipulated, he was the executor of an abominable plan.
We ask ourselves a lot of questions.
It is a tragedy linked to the radicalization trap.
"
