“You are accused of complicity in these crimes committed by Saïd and Chérif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly.
For long minutes, the president of the Special Assize Court, which is to judge the attacks of January 2015, scolds the offenses alleged against Ali Riza Polat.
Arms crossed on his chest dressed in a white shirt, the main accused, only one of the eleven in the box prosecuted for "complicity in assassinations", listens to the names of the 17 victims that we had heard no more for several weeks.
Then this 35-year-old man born in Istanbul immediately defends himself in a formula that he will repeat tirelessly throughout his interrogation.
“I don't want to go to jail for that.
I did not give a bullet, I did not give a weapon, […] I want to go to prison for what I did, shouts Ali Riza Polat.
I don't want to go to jail for what I didn't do.
I know I'm gonna go.
He made a fool, my mouth.
"
“He” is Amedy Coulibaly, his “friend” from Grigny (Essonne) met in 2007. “We hooked up direct.
He was a bandit, I'm a bandit, we made money, we did stupid things ”, sums up the accustomed to flowery tirades, who denies having bought weapons and having known about the plans for attacks .
“It's hard to hear, Amedy, he was my friend.
I'm not going to give him Kalashnikovs to go get killed, he's done shit.
"
"I'm not going to kill people for money"
With an intense flow, a loud voice, even if it means deafening the court, Ali Riza Polat unpack everything, his life, his "shenanigans", and everything that seems, according to him, to prove his innocence.
“I was born with nothing.
My father was a good-for-nothing.
I want money.
This is my goal in my life.
I don't want to die poor.
But I'm not going to kill people for money, ”assures the one who we feel is playing his game.
Referring to heroin from Lebanon, cocaine from several Latin American countries, trips to Cape Verde, Guinea Conakry, the possibility of settling in Brazil, the accused proudly states his success in the drug traffic.
He talks about Lamborghini and Louis Vuitton products.
His little brother, a 28-year-old boy, told the bar: “One day, in 2011, I was in my bed, he came to wake me up with 50,000 euros in 500 bills. He said to me:
Wake up !
See what it's like to make money!
»From the box and the bar, the two brothers laugh.
With a disjointed speech, made of digressions and shocking sentences, Ali Riza Polat drowns the court which struggles to place one to proceed to his interrogation.
"Shall we take a little break?"
Shall we go back down a bit?
Do you breathe a little?
", Calls the president of the Special Assize Court.
With infinite patience, Régis de Jorna interrupts him and tries to find out more about this debt of 15,000 euros contracted with Amedy Coulibaly in 2009 and never repaid.
This claim would explain why the accused would have "rendered services" to the killer of Montrouge and the Hyper Cacher.
We understand that in 2014, Ali Riza Polat no longer lives in the splendor he described before.
His little brother will even say he has to lend him 20 euros from time to time.
“I do scams, it doesn't work.
What do I do?
Am I going to attack little old women?
», Asks the accused.
Coulibaly then manages to obtain a car, a Mini, which he decided to resell in Greece, via the networks of the Belgian Metin Karasular.
Coulibaly and Polat make several trips to Charleroi (Belgium) to negotiate and obtain the money.
Polat must earn a commission on this sale.
He would have looked for weapons in the fall of 2014
A list of weapons, handwritten according to experts, was found at Karasular's home.
"I asked him to find out," replied Ali Riza Polat, who claims to have wanted to commit robberies.
“No one was going to shoot anyone!
», He warns.
"So why order 9mm bullets?"
“Asks the president.
At the end of the day, Madi N., an acquaintance of Grigny, tries to minimize the role of the main accused but ends up admitting: yes, Ali Riza Polat explained to him in the fall of 2014 that he was looking for weapons, yes, he knew that Polat was looking for an apartment for a "buddy".
According to the prosecution, it would be the “conspiratorial” apartment rented by Coulibaly in Gentilly (Val-de-Marne) a few days before the attacks.
According to Ali Riza Polat, Madi N. is angry with him and is implicated in the disappearance of a young person from a city of Grigny and in a scam.
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And his flight to Lebanon on January 12, 2015, his attempt to cross into Syria five days later?
“I wasn't going to surrender.
Look, for five years, I have done more than Hermant than sold the weapons, justifies Ali Riza Polat.
Afterwards I wanted to join Damascus (Syria).
There, there are Shiites, Bashar al-Assad is in control, there is no war in Damascus.
"The accused denies having wanted to join the jihadist armed forces:" At the Islamic State, I do not even do 30 minutes.
They will kill me.
I don't want to live under Sharia law!
"
"You absolutely want a culprit, but it won't be me"
Raised in a Kurdish family, in the Alevi tradition, by a mother who said "to believe in God but not in religions", Ali Riza Polat converted to Islam after being released from prison.
“I became a Muslim in May or June 2014. I had my problems, I went to the Grigny mosque.
I didn't even know how to pray.
But even converted, I continued my shenanigans […] I continued with the girls.
"When his family asks him about this novelty, the one who has five records in his criminal record replies:" Read the Koran, you will understand, that's all.
"
Later, between fury and sarcasm, and despite the appeasement gestures of his lawyer Me Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, he explodes: “I am extremely strong!
Before January 9, I'm Mac Gyver, I manage to bring back weapons, without leaving any DNA or fingerprints.
And after the attacks, I do Pieds Nickelés stuff.
After the 9th it goes nuts, I become stupid.
I leave traces at the airport.
But you are crazy !
"
His defense, which he repeats like a litany, can be summed up: “How can I be an accomplice in all these facts with people I have never seen?
How does a car sale to repay a debt get to my supply of arms to the Kouachi?
[…] I never got up one morning to kill anyone […] You absolutely want a culprit, but it won't be me.
"
