In March 2016, an arsenal of war was discovered in an apartment he rented in the Paris region: sentenced in April 2021 to 24 years in prison for a planned jihadist attack, Réda Kriket is retried from Friday May 13 in Paris .
To discover
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The appeal trial of this 40-year-old former multi-recidivist and four other defendants before the special assize court is expected to last nearly five weeks.
Also retried are Anis Bahri, 38, and Abderrahmane Ameuroud, a 44-year-old Afghan jihad veteran, accused of having formed with Reda Kriket the "
operational trio
" of a jihadist cell planning a deadly attack in France.
All three had been sentenced to the same sentence of 24 years' imprisonment, accompanied by a two-thirds security period.
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office (Pnat), which had requested life imprisonment against the three men, had appealed.
“Persistent gray areas”
Reda Kriket has always disputed any plan for a terrorist attack, claiming, during his first trial, that he wanted to commit a robbery.
A thesis excluded by the court ruling at first instance, because of the extent of the arsenal discovered on March 24, 2016, two days after the attacks in Brussels, in the accommodation he rented under a false name in Argenteuil (Val -d'Oise).
A total of thirteen weapons, including five assault rifles and a submachine gun, a quantity of ammunition, explosives, as well as thousands of metal balls.
Neither the nature of the attacks envisaged, nor the targets, nor the "
moment
" could be determined "
with precision
", had however noted the court, insisting on the "
many persistent gray areas
" of the file.
She also considered that “
no element (allowed) to affirm that it was an attack directly planned from Syria by the Islamic State organization
”, as the prosecution argued.
The investigation with drawers and European ramifications began in November 2015 with the arrest in Turkey of two men, about to go to Syria according to the authorities.
Read alsoThe bitterness of the victims of the attack of July 14, 2016
The investigators went back to Anis Bahri then Réda Kriket, then wanted in Belgium after a conviction in his absence in a terrorist file.
Two other men, accused of logistical support, are retried.
One of them, acquitted at first instance, appears free.
