She still remembers the "
cold look
" and "
inhuman
" of Abdelhamid Abaaoud: at the trial of November 13, "
Sonia
" told Friday how she had, at the risk of her life, denounced to the police the operational leader of the attacks , a “
heavy sacrifice
” but that she “
does not regret
”.
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Blurred face, modified voice, it is a spectrum that appears on the screens of the special assize court of Paris.
“
Sonia
” says she is “
48 years old
”, is an “
agent
”.
A protected witness, she has changed her identity and her life since her crucial testimony, "
providential
" according to an investigator, which made it possible to locate Abdelhamid Abaaoud, on the run after having machine-gunned the Parisian terraces, and to avoid new attacks.
"
Public enemy number one
", hunted, the operational chief of the commandos of Paris and Saint-Denis will be killed in a police attack on November 18, 2015. More than six years later, "
Sonia
" describes to the court this evening, two days after the attacks that left 130 dead, where she crossed paths with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, holed up in a bush in Aubervilliers, along the A86 motorway.
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She accompanies a lost and unstable young woman whom she has taken under her wing and whom she is sheltering, Hasna Aït Boulahcen.
She was just supposed to pick up "
her 17-year-old cousin who has problems
", but finds herself facing Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a French figure in jihadism supposed to be in Syria.
“
He is there, in front of me.
(…) He shook my hand, which I regret
”, declares “
Sonia
”, who still has “
nightmares
” about it.
He introduces himself, she asks him if he took part in the attacks.
"
He answers me: 'Yeah, the terraces, it's me'
", reports the key witness.
He assures “
that he is here to finish what he started
”.
I tell him that he killed innocent people, that Islam is not that
, ”says the mother of the family.
She goes home and the next day, November 16, she waits for Hasna Aït Boulahcen to leave her home to call the toll-free number set up by the police.
“
I explained who I had met, they did not believe me
”, laments “
Sonia
”.
A heavy sacrifice
She is summoned in the evening and delivers a lot of information, a physical description of the jihadist, the fact that he is wearing a jacket, a "
cream-colored bucket hat
" and "
orange sneakers
", spotted on the metro video surveillance and only known investigators.
For them, “
caution remains in
order ”, indicates a commissioner also heard as a witness on Friday, former assistant to the anti-terrorism sub-directorate (Sdat) of the judicial police.
If Abdelhamid Abaaoud, "
target number one
" of European intelligence is in France, it would be "
a cataclysm
", explains the investigator.
It could also be "
an ambush by the Islamic State (IS)
".
Surveillance is set up, especially near the "
conspiratorial bush
" of Aubervilliers, and "
Sonia
" continues to give information to the anti-terrorist police, obtained from Hasna Aït Boulahcen.
Read alsoAt the November 13 trial: Salah Abdeslam, this jihadist who defends himself like a small dealer
The latter is mandated to find accommodation for her cousin, and “
costumes
” for new attacks planned in the district of La Défense, on November 19, targeting “
a shopping center, a police station
”.
“
I couldn't have let that happen
”, underlines “
Sonia
” in a metallic voice.
On November 18, 2015 before dawn, the Raid launched an assault on the apartment in Saint-Denis where Abdelhamid Abaaoud took refuge with his accomplice Chakib Akrouh, another survivor of the terrace commando, and Hasna Aït Boulahcen.
All three die.
“
Sonia
” spends “
forty-eight hours in police custody
”.
Then she is released and will be taken care of by a specialized department of the Ministry of the Interior.
In February 2016, she gave an interview in which she said she was "
abandoned
" by the state.
She benefited a few months later from a new status, becoming the first “
protected witness
” in France.
Her testimony "
cost her dearly, very dearly
", both for her and for her children and her companion, she told the court.
“
It's a heavy sacrifice
”, but “
I don't regret what I did, I will never regret it
”.
Before suspending the hearing, the president of the court, Jean-Louis Périès, "
welcomes (his) courageous gesture
".
“
It made it possible to avoid other attacks
”, points out the magistrate.
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