It's the first time he's said it... but he won't say more for now.
At the trial of November 13, the “
man in the hat
” of the Brussels attacks, Mohamed Abrini, admitted on Tuesday March 22 that he was “
planned
” for the attacks in Saint-Denis and Paris.
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On March 22, the anniversary of the attacks that killed 32 people in Brussels in March 2016, Mohamed Abrini would have preferred that "
we talk about the commemorations
" rather than about him.
The 37-year-old Belgian is the "
man in the hat
" whose photo everyone saw taken by CCTV at Zaventem airport, dark bob on his head, pushing a trolley of "
40 kilos of explosives
", as he recalls before the special assize court of Paris.
Before giving up on blowing himself up and fleeing.
For the prosecution, this renunciation was the second in a few months.
The day before the attacks that killed 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis in November 2015, Mohamed Abrini had taken the road to the French capital with members of the commando of the Stade de France, the Parisian terraces and the Bataclan.
“
The convoy of death
”, as he had described it to the investigators.
But he had left the same evening for Brussels, by taxi.
During his hearings, Mohamed Abrini always maintained that he had only come to accompany his friends "
in their last breath
", an astonishing risk-taking and deemed to be not very credible.
The prosecution believes rather that he had given up there too, which would explain a last-minute change of team among the other members of the commando.
“Never” participated in the preparations
But at today's hearing, Mohamed Abrini is only questioned about his role in the logistics of the attacks between the end of August and the very beginning of November.
For several hours, the court, the public prosecutor, the lawyers for the plaintiffs and even the defense reminded him in turn, with more or less tact, that he sometimes had a tendency to say "
anything
" when he is "
in the fog
" in his head.
“
It has been demonstrated, I think
”, obediently agrees the accused, brick sweater, surgical mask on his face.
Sometimes confusedly, in flowery tirades that characterize him, he maintains that he “
never
” participated in the preparations in the weeks preceding the attacks.
"
I didn't buy weapons, I didn't rent cars, I didn't sew explosive vests
”.
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Also for the first time, he declares having spent a day at the end of August in an apartment in Charleroi with his childhood friend Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the coordinator of the attacks that all European intelligence services believed at the time to be in Syria.
"
We talk about the neighborhood, his family, his injury
" - by bullet, at the level of the collarbone, he shows his hand -, not plans for attacks, he hammers in the face of questions that repeat themselves.
“
I know that serious things are going to happen
”, “
there are lots of people from my neighborhood who left for Syria, and there they came back.
I know they are not here for sightseeing or shopping
,” he agrees.
For the rest, things "
much more serious
he did later, "
I'll enlighten you next week
," he promises.
"I was scheduled for November 13"
When it is her turn to ask questions, her lawyer Marie Violleau takes her place at the desk facing the court, turns to the box and says to her: "
You have seen, your statements, we do what we want with them.
".
So "
we're going to take what's in the file, the concrete elements,
" she suggests.
Mohamed Abrini intervenes.
"
If I spoke of Abaaoud, it is that we are approaching the interrogations on November 13
", he justifies.
“
I'll tell you, I was even scheduled for November 13.
I plan to talk about that next week
.”
Read alsoAt the November 13 trial: Salah Abdeslam, this jihadist who defends himself like a small dealer
Marie Violleau takes a second.
Then: “
We are moving forward a bit.
We're making a lot of progress
."
But we will not know more: the hearing schedule established by the court, sometimes a source of frustration, cuts the interrogations of the defendants in chronological order.
The final preparations for the attacks and the evening of November 13 will not be discussed until March 29 - starting with the interrogation of Mohamed Abrini.
"
We expect a lot from next week then
," concludes President Jean-Louis Périès.
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