The appeal trial of the foiled attack by passengers on a Thalys train in 2015 opens Monday, November 21 before the special assize court in Paris, with the only defendant in the box the Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani, the shooter of the train, sentenced at first instance to life imprisonment.
Three of the four defendants in the first trial, in November-December 2020, had appealed.
But two of them, including the Belgian-Moroccan Mohamed Bakkali, involved as a "
logistician
" in the attacks of November 13, finally gave up their appeal.
“Heroic” passenger intervention
On August 21, 2015, Ayoub El Khazzani, now 33, boarded the Thalys Amsterdam-Paris train in Brussels armed with a Kalashnikov, a pistol, a box cutter and nearly 300 rounds of ammunition.
He had been prevented from committing a massacre only by the “
heroic
” intervention of passengers, including two American soldiers in civilian clothes who were then on vacation, the court had indicated during the first trial.
Read alsoThalys attack foiled in 2015: shooter Ayoub El Khazzani sentenced to life imprisonment
In accordance with the requisitions of the public prosecutor, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment for “
attempted terrorist assassinations
”.
His sentence was accompanied by a 22-year security period.
But the trial at first instance did not shed any light on the terrorist project of Thalys, which announced the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris and Saint-Denis, coordinated by the principal of El Khazzani , Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
"
Emir
" of the Islamic State (IS), killed on November 18, 2015, during an assault by the security forces against his hideout in Saint-Denis, Abdelhamid Abaaoud is considered to be the leader of the commandos who caused the death of 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis.
During the first trial, El Khazzani explained that he wanted to “
avenge
” the civilian victims of the bombardments of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and the international coalition.
An episode of a “campaign of mass attacks”
It was during a short stay in Syria, in May 2015, that he was trained by Abdelhamid Abaaoud who told him how to satisfy his desire for revenge.
“
Abaaoud knows how to manipulate, throw oil on the fire
,” the accused told the court.
It was still in the company of Abaaoud that Ayoub El Khazzani had reached Europe, with the help in particular of Mohamed Bakkali, by taking "
the route of migrants
".
Read alsoThalys trial: “The terrorist tried to kill me three times”
During the first trial, El Khazzani had maintained that he had received the sole mission of his sponsor to kill the American soldiers and members of the European Commission, who would be present on board the train.
This explanation had been deemed “
fanciful
” by the court.
El Khazzani's goal was to kill "
blindly and indiscriminately
" the approximately 200 passengers on the train, the court had underlined.
El Khazzani had also said, without absolutely convincing, that he had given up killing, disarmed by the smile of a first passenger, then by the humanity of the eyes crossed on the train.
On the contrary, the court recalled that the failed attack was part "
in a real campaign of mass attacks which finds its peak
" in the attacks of November 13 in Paris and in March 2016 in Brussels.
The appeal trial is scheduled until December 9.
