Why is a school leader, adored by children and loving his job, today found himself suspected of having wanted to commit a jihadist attack on French soil?
"
I thus had the feeling of being useful,
" Yassine Bousseria replied on Friday before the special assize court in Paris.
While the trial where he appears for "
terrorist criminal association
" comes to an end, the personality of Yassine Bousseria, a 41-year-old Strasbourg resident, remains an enigma.
Read also: Trial of three suspected jihadists: "I was hot to go to Syria, not for an attack in France"
Was he "
naive
", as he says himself, or is he hiding his game, as the prosecution believes, which sees him as the linchpin of a "
sleeper cell
" of the State group? Islamic (IS) in France?
Without any criminal record until his arrest in November 2016, Yassine Bousseria does not deny his "
indoctrination
" and, unlike most people tried in similar cases, refuses to pose as a victim.
“
I am not the victim of anything.
I made mistakes and I'm (in the box) for that,
”he told the court.
Like his two co-defendants, his childhood friend Hicham Makran and the Moroccan Hicham El-Hanafi, he faces thirty years of criminal imprisonment.
In a clear and calm voice, this tall, clean-shaven fellow, a little stooped, explains the "
path
" which led him to the assizes.
From the start of the civil war in Syria, he sought “
to learn more
” without sorting out the information he received.
In the game of propaganda, ISIS knows how to be formidably effective and Yassine Bousseria lets itself be seduced.
In his defense, he explains that he had “
no hindsight, nor enough intellectual and religious knowledge
”.
"
What we were told was the word of the gospel
", confides the accused.
“
The Syrian people were completely abandoned, so when you see a group that defends them, you tend to support them even if, sometimes, you have doubts and hesitations,
” he explains.
"
If you had any doubts, why didn't you give up?
Wants to know the president.
“
I was naive.
We did not have the courage to stop,
”replied the accused.
“
We were told: we need you and we believed in it
”.
Read also: Syria: ten years after the start of the war, the UN still paralyzed
A friend from his neighborhood, Oumar Diaw, joined the ranks of ISIS and has been in Syria since 2014. Yassine Bousseria and Hicham Makran have kept in touch with him.
"
Was he explaining his activities to you?"
», Asks the president.
“
Not really.
He didn't tell us what his specific role was.
He said that it was something to be experienced, that it was grandiose,
”recalls the accused.
"
He sold us dreams,
" he notes with a touch of bitterness.
Probably dead in Raqqa in May 2016, Oumar Diaw was known to Western intelligence services to have participated in numerous abuses and tortured prisoners.
"
Like in a movie
"
In February 2015, Yassine Bousseria and Hicham Makran decided to leave for Syria.
The operation turns into a fiasco.
Arrived in Gaziantep, the Turkish border town of Syria which has become a privileged point of passage for jihad candidates, the two friends "
deflate
".
“
Until then, we were in a movie, when we arrived there, seeing armed people driving around in pick-ups, reality took over
,” says Bousseria.
"
What were you expecting?
At Club Med?
», Laughs the president.
Before they leave for Strasbourg, Oumar Diaw sends them a file that the two Strasbourg residents load on a USB key to communicate in an encrypted manner with the jihadist organization.
Yassine Bousseria maintains that after the Turkish episode, his determination is blunted.
"
However, you continued to communicate with ISIS
", annoyed the court.
Bousseria does not deny.
In November, IS will ask Yassine Bousseria and Hicham Makran to go and retrieve weapons hidden in the forest of Montmorency (Val d'Oise), without knowing that this cache of weapons is a trap set up by the Directorate General of internal security (DGSI).
Read also: A Reunion jihadist expelled from Turkey placed in police custody
Could the Strasbourg resident have taken action?
The police arrested him before.
"
What would you have done if you hadn't been arrested?
“, Then wants to know the president.
“
Get back to my normal life
,” said the former school leader.
The indictments are scheduled for Monday afternoon.