"
Gags
" of "
unbearable
"
violence
: the Franco-Israeli hacker Ulcan, known for
extreme
"
hoaxes
", is tried Thursday and Friday in Paris for a series of malicious calls targeting in particular the mayor of Lille Martine Aubry and journalist Pierre Haski.
His real name Grégory Chelly, the defendant, 39 years old, installed since the end of 2013 in Israel, will not appear before the criminal court, according to his lawyer Me Gilles-William Goldnadel.
Read also The Franco-Israeli hacker Ulcan will be tried by French justice for a deadly hoax
In the summer of 2014, Grégory Chelly, follower of the hacking of pro-Palestinian or media sites and known for the hoaxes taken to the extreme of his site "
ViolVocal
", had launched a series of attacks against the news site. Rue 89 after an article devoted to his methods which had displeased him.
He had initially harassed the author of the article and his parents, making them believe in the death of their son.
Then he passed himself off to the police as an entrenched man who killed his wife and baby and gave the parents' address.
Four days later, the journalist's father had a heart attack from which he died a few weeks later.
In this case, an examining magistrate had decided in 2019 to send Grégory Chelly before an assize court for "
willful violence with premeditation having resulted in death without intention of giving it
".
But his decision was overturned by the Court of Cassation at the end of 2020 for procedural questions.
Last week, the Paris Court of Appeal decided to send the case back to the examining magistrate.
This sequence should be discussed Thursday and Friday in court since Grégory Chelly is also appearing for five other cases, including a malicious appeal targeting journalist Pierre Haski, at the time publishing director of Rue 89.
"
Unbearable violence
"
The latter still remembers the “
50 people
” downstairs from his home during the night - “
firefighters, ambulances, police ready to storm if I don't answer
”: his phone line had just been hacked to say that he stabbed his wife and turned on the gas in the building. "
They are not simple gags as he claims
", "
it is a disproportion and an unbearable violence on the part of someone who believes himself everything allowed and above the law
", considers Pierre Haski. Ulcan is "
a pioneer
" of this type of attacks which have since multiplied, he notes, hoping for a conviction which will set a "
precedent
".
The mayor of Lille Martine Aubry (PS) had also paid the price for Ulcan's methods in October 2014. In reaction to the Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip during the summer, the municipality of Lille announces that it is “
temporarily on standby
” a twinning with an Israeli city. On his Facebook page, the hacker and “
Zionist activist
”, as he describes himself, threatens the mayor with “
sanctions
”.
According to the prosecution, he first rings his phone several times in the middle of the night and then, pretending to be the husband of the chosen one, he calls the police. "
He says that he has just killed his wife, that he is entrenched and armed and that he will open fire if they intervene
", explains Me Matthieu Hénon, Martine Aubry's lawyer. “
Threats are one thing. But this episode, the police in front of her house, it obviously disturbed and marked her a lot
”. Martine Aubry will not be present at the hearing. "
I would have been at the trial if Mr. Ulcan had had the courage, which he did not have, to come,
" she told AFP."
I especially want to think of those for whom the consequences of his actions were dramatic
», Adds the mayor of Lille, referring to another procedure aimed at the hacker.
According to an investigation by L'Express, Stéphane Richard (CEO of Orange), a deputy or Jamel Debbouze were also targeted by attacks attributed to Ulcan.
"
Basically there is nothing, no element to prove that it is him
", sweeps Me Goldnadel.
A judicial investigation, opened in the summer of 2014, is also still in progress in Paris for acts of computer hacking, some claimed by Ulcan, which had affected the sites of Radio France, Rue89, Mediapart and
Liberation
.