First day of hearing and first dive into the "
insurrectionary scheme
" of the defendants: the trial of 13 activists close to the ultra-right group Barjols began to explore the ideology that would have guided their preparation of "
violent actions
" against Emmanuel Macron.
After nearly four years of investigation, these 11 men and two women have been sent to trial for wanting to attack the head of state but also for fomenting a putsch, assassinations of migrants or attacks on mosques.
None of these projects have been implemented.
The “need” to attack migrants and Muslims
Prosecuted for criminal terrorist association, these defendants aged 26 to 66 all gravitated around the Barjols, a small group born on Facebook in 2017, follower of secret paramilitary meetings and the conspiracy theory of the "
great replacement
".
Summarizing the indictment, the president of the correctional court detects in these defendants the same motivation based on the fear "
of a civil war
", of a "
wave of migration attributed to the President of the Republic
" and of a supposed "
imbalance of rights
" to the detriment of the French.
To answer it was expressed, within the Barjols, “
the need to attack migrants and individuals of the Muslim faith through armed struggle
”, continues Thomas Jouck, before detailing the origin of the procedure.
An “imminent” passage to the act
It was on October 31, 2018 that an anti-terrorist investigation was opened on the basis of intelligence information according to which an ultra-right activist, Jean-Pierre Bouyer, was planning to kill President Emmanuel Macron during the commemorations of the centenary of the November 11 armistice in eastern France.
Fearing an "
imminent
" act against the Head of State, the police carried out a first wave of arrests on November 6 in Moselle by arresting Jean-Pierre Bouyer and three other defendants close to the ultra-right.
Weapons and ammunition are found at the home of this 66-year-old ex-garage man, former number 2 of Barjols who would have thought of using an undetectable ceramic blade to attack the head of state.
"
There are things that escape me
" in this procedure, he dropped at the helm, loose sweatshirt and dark jeans.
In the months that followed, other waves of arrests followed in France in the wake of the Barjols.
Its founder, Denis Collinet, will thus be arrested in March 2020.
To read also Mathieu Bock-Côté: “The ultra-right, convenient foil”
On the first day of the debates, attention focused more on Mickaël Iber, 43, arrested during the first wave of arrests and the only defendant to still be detained.
On Facebook or in exchanges captured by investigators, this former homeless man spoke of "
killing migrants with his own hands
" and "
overturning this corrupt government
".
In this defendant, "
there is an insurrectionary pattern and the desire to overthrow the institutions
", indicates the president of the court, who had challenged at the very beginning of the hearing "
the fantasy of political justice
".
Behind the glass box, the defendant assumes being a "
grouch
" but denies being violent or harboring any hatred for Muslims.
"
I'm with Muslims all the time, my son's godfather is a Muslim
," exclaims this man who has been imprisoned for "
fifty months
" and very reluctant to talk about his battered childhood.
He is far from alone in this case: between unemployment and illness, all of the defendants have "
very damaged life courses
", according to the president.
“
There is heavy if we can sum it up
”.
Aged 26 and suffering from a mental disorder, Antoine D. was also arrested at the start of the investigation and seems lost in the courtroom.
When he comes to the bar to state his identity, the young man almost faints and confesses to having "
vaguely understood
" the charges against him.
“
There are elements of particular fragility
,” admits the president.
He will be less understanding of another defendant who claims not to be able to attend his trial in full because of a very specific reason:
"a diabetic cat", "isolated in Brittany".
"No one but me can approach him
," he says.
End of trial scheduled for February 3.
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