"We were both committed, in our own way, to serving our homeland."
The voice strangled with emotion, Michel Jugelé, 66, came forward this Thursday, June 10 in the morning to evoke before the assize court specially composed the memory of his son Xavier.
Until June 18, four men are on trial for having played a role in supplying an assault rifle to Karim Cheurfi, the terrorist who targeted police officers on the avenue des Champs-Élysées on April 20, 2017. This that evening, Xavier Jugelé died, hit by two bullets.
Two of his colleagues as well as a German tourist were injured.
Read also: Four years after the assassination of police officer Xavier Jugelé on the Champs-Élysées, four men tried in Paris
The killer was shot dead by the police just after the fact.
"Fortunately, the comrades [of Xavier] who retaliated at the risk of their lives have this case arrested on the individual most concerned, otherwise it may be I who would be in the box of the accused"
, dropped the sixty-year-old in a leaden silence.
A few minutes later, Étienne Cardilès, the victim's spouse, on the contrary
"regretted"
that the terrorist died,
"even if I think that there were not many other solutions in view of his determination"
.
To read also: Policeman murdered on the Champs-Élysées: the trauma and the guilt of Xavier Jugelé's colleagues
Former soldier in the Air Force, Michel Jugelé, blue jacket, glasses and sparse white hair, assured the court of his
"confidence in the State and its institutions".
“Otherwise I wouldn't have joined the army
,” he added.
I let you make the decisions, I am not a judge. ”
Xavier Jugelé's brother, Yannick, for his part delivered his feeling:
“They are not going to take me for a fool.
When we provide a weapon of this caliber to a person, we must be suspicious of his intentions.
It's my feeling, my impression. "
A posthumous marriage
Does the 31-year-old want to speak to the court of his elder brother, the president wants to know? The response slams:
“No, I have nothing to say. My brother, it's personal. ”
The one who spoke the most about the victim is ultimately Odile Jugelé, his mother, yet absent. In a letter read by her lawyer, she resuscitated for a moment the
"little boy full of life who very early on devoured books"
, the
"intrepid and joyful child who was one of the very good students",
the big brother
"teasing and mischievous"
with his brother and his sister, the young man who
"was interested in the arts, in the history of France, in languages"
.
Read also: The victim, Xavier Jugelé, 37, a police officer hailed for his courage
After a bac S and a hypokhâgne, Xavier Jugelé is moving towards the law.
He was first a policeman, then became a policeman and was assigned to Paris on June 1, 2011,
"this City of Light which [him] made so much dream"
.
That same year, the young man moved in with Étienne Cardilès.
They join the PACS the following year.
An
"administrative formality prior to what unfortunately resulted in a posthumous marriage"
, testifies the diplomat, while restrained in his gray suit.
To read also: Holland and Hidalgo at the posthumous marriage of Xavier Jugelé
Behind the six professional judges, photos of the victim parade. Slightly splitting the armor, Étienne Cardilès comments on them. Holidays in Crete, family moments ... and a snapshot of Xavier Jugelé the day he left the National Police Academy in Nîmes.
"In this photo, we see the plaque for the police officers who died on duty
,
" said
the forty-something. Since April 20, 2017, Xavier Jugelé has been one of those men and women who have fallen in the performance of their duties.
“Xavier, we miss you. This pain is indescribable, ”
his mother concluded in her letter.
