Mohamed Habri, considered by justice as the "
second
" of Saber Lahmar, former Guantanamo exonerated, and tried alongside him until Friday in Paris for jihadist propaganda, admitted Wednesday for the first time his "
radicalization
" past .
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He was speaking before the 16th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court, on the second day of the trial which targets the two men for criminal association of terrorist criminals.
They are notably suspected of having incited several people to leave for Syria and Iraq in 2015.
"
Untenable remarks
"
Mohamed Habri was questioned about his career and his restaurant in the Grand-Parc district of Bordeaux, a room of which would have hosted radical sermons by Saber Lahmar.
Among the charges weighing on this 45-year-old Frenchman, telephone interceptions and radical messages, in particular with his companion.
The anti-terrorist prosecutor got up before saying to him: "
I confess to you that I still do not know what you really think of what you have been
".
At the start of the interrogation, Mohamed Habri recognizes his "
shame
" in the face of his "
very negative course
" and his "
not defensible remarks
" in the middle of the 2010s. "
Throughout the judicial investigation
", until June 2021 , notes the prosecutor, "
you say that you have never been radicalized
".
A “
double discourse
” between yesterday and today?
“
Radicalized vision
”
"
It's not doublespeak, it's a shame
," replied the defendant.
Especially since he “
represents a religion
”, Islam, which he is worried about having “
dirty
”.
He recognizes an "
awareness
" which now makes him say that he was then "
in a phase of radicalization
".
"
In that period, I had a lot of anger
," he adds, referring to many personal difficulties.
It was "
a vicious circle: we victimize ourselves, we stay in the same sphere, the same group, the same neighborhood, and we adopt a vision (...) radicalized
", he argued.
The representative of the public prosecutor insists, recalling the “
117 pages
” of interrogations during which he could have confessed this radicalization.
"
In my head, I didn't consider myself radicalized
," replies Mohamed Habri.
Before conceding that today, "
by reflecting, coming back to it, we realize that we were on (this) path
".
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His lawyer, Me Noémie Saidi-Cottier, then intervenes: “
It's not a dirty word,
'
radicalized
'
.
I agreed with the prosecutor when she pushed you a little.
Now is the time to explain Mohamed Habri to you
, ”she instructs him.
The defendant once again recognizes this past radicalization, but says he has come out of it now: “
It has nothing to do with it anymore.
»
