Tried for having threatened to detonate bombs on the railway tracks if a ransom was not paid to him, the instigator of the
“AZF group”
once again justified his action on Wednesday, which had sowed concern at the top of the State .
“Something that attenuates my guilt is that the intention was good
,” said Michel D., 76, a retired business manager who appears before the Paris criminal court, alongside one of his ex-employees, for criminal association and manufacturing and possession of explosive devices without authorization.
“It’s just the means that were bad
,” said Michel D.
Tuesday, at the opening of his trial, the former business leader claimed that he only wanted to
“scare”
.
But one of the two bombs discovered on February 21, 2004 on the ballast of the Paris-Toulouse line near Folles (Haute-Vienne) was, according to experts,
“sophisticated”
and in working order.
A second bomb was discovered accidentally by an SNCF agent on March 24, 2004 in Aube, on the Paris-Troyes-Basel route.
A ransom to finance the construction of a water engine
“I had a humanist project
,” defended Michel D. who, at the same time, did not hesitate to maintain that
“feelings are an error that humans commit
. ”
“To love, to love, to love... it doesn’t mean much
,” he believes.
The septuagenarian is silent for a moment and specifies:
“I have worked a lot on myself.
Now I like people.
I developed an empathy that didn’t exist at the time
. ”
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The case for which he is being tried broke out at the end of 2003, when an unknown group called
"AZF"
- named after the factory whose explosion caused the death of 31 people in Toulouse two years earlier - claimed to have buried
“a series of bombs”
under the ballast of railway tracks and promised to detonate them in the absence of payment by the State of a ransom of 4 to 8 million euros.
Michel D.'s “humanist project”
was
to have the means to make
“a water engine”
.
Was his accomplice under the influence?
To achieve his goals, he recruited Perrine R., one of his former employees, now 61 years old.
Did Michel D. manipulate Perrine R. to lead her into his
“madness”
, as he himself described it?
“We are all manipulators to varying degrees
,” says Michel D.
“I am manipulative but no more than anyone else
,” he adds.
Perrine R. affirms for her part that she acted in full conscience.
At the time of the events,
“I think I was an angry woman, that I was not well
,” she said.
“I had a minimal but serious role
,” she admits.
The story of his damaged life is heartbreaking.
Born to an unknown father, a miserable childhood, toxic relationships, countless addictions including to ether.
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About Michel D., she said:
“We had common beliefs”
.
Was she under his influence?
She categorically denies it.
“That’s not my feeling
,” she said, refusing to overwhelm her former superior.
Perrine R. admitted to having posted the threatening letters - written by Michel D. - sent to the Élysée Palace and the Ministry of the Interior.
“I don’t need money any more than anyone,” assures Perrine R
Between December 2003 and March 2004, nine letters signed
“AZF”
, an acronym representing, in his words, a
“terrorist pressure group secretly created within a secular brotherhood with ethical and political specificity”
were sent to the authorities. .
Perrine R. also called the police several times with ransom demands.
On the other hand, she never participated in the making of bombs.
“All I remember is that the bombs were not supposed to go off
,” she said.
The prosecutor asks what she would have done with the money if the blackmail had succeeded.
“Most of the money would have been used to finance the (water engine) project.
I have a job (house painter), I don’t need money any more than anyone else
,” says the woman, whose fragility is visible.
Psychological experts have described
“an altruistic personality”
.
“What do you expect from this trial?”
, asks his lawyer, Me Jean-François Morant.
“I’m waiting for this to be over
,” she said, exhausted.
The trial is scheduled to end Friday.