The essential
Supply of weapons, false papers, knowledge of deadly projects ... For more than a month, 14 men have been appearing in Paris to answer for their involvement to varying degrees in the attacks of November 13, 2015 which left 131 dead in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) and in Paris.
All our articles on the subject can be read here.
This Tuesday, the court examines the paths of Adel Haddadi and Muhammed Usman, two accused suspected of having left Algeria and Pakistan respectively, to reach the Iraqi-Syrian zone.
The court will then study the routes taken by these two men between Syria and Austria.
According to investigators, these two men should have belonged to the commandos that attacked Paris in November 2015.
> Follow the hearings of the investigators live
13:43.
"This video is of a very interesting nature"
, underlines the investigator of the DGSI.
Usman appears in May 2015 on this video when he says he did not go to Iraq until August 2015. On the loss of his right eye: he says he lost the use of it in Syria because of a projectile but on the video, it does not present an injury to the eye.
During his personality hearing, he told the court that he was injured when he was young in a motorcycle accident.
13:29. The viewing.
A typical video of propaganda films shot by the Islamic State appears on the screen of the Assize Court screen. Men wave Daesh flags, some with their fingers raised to the sky. Then the face of a young man, that of Muhammad Usman, wearing a black hat, black beard, appears for a few seconds, letting the court imagine the painstaking work provided by the investigators of the DGSI.
13:25. The propaganda video.
Usman is recognized in a 6-minute video that celebrates the battle of Al Anbar, named after the Iraqi province whose capital is Ramadi. This victory marks the end of a long period of fighting. The jubilant crowd is filmed there, cars parade to the glory of Daesh fighters. A man with a gray beard speaks in Arabic, Muhammad Usman appears at his side. The barrel of a weapon protrudes behind his back.
1:30 p.m. The testimony of the Indian fighter.
According to the investigator, an Indian national claims to have lived and worked within the Islamic State with Usman in 2015. The latter allegedly told him that he had undergone training in Afghanistan. In December 2018, this Indian, who recognized him on a photo, told DGSI investigators: "He's my brother, I won't say anything against him."
13:22. Usman arrived in Syria.
He was taken to a house with men for three days. His property is confiscated. After several days, he says he is being taken "against his will" to Fallujah in Iraq. He stayed there for two days in a first house, then another fortnight in another, where he reads the Koran to occupy himself, discusses with combatants, says prayers. He says he has never heard of fights and battles that he has not participated in any training. "There is nothing that shocked me, what I saw there, it was an Islam that worked, a good Islam (...) For adultery, the penalty is stoning (...)"
1:18 p.m. The departure from Algeria.
According to the investigator, Adel Haddadi, a pastry chef, passionate about birds, was issued a new passport in October 2014, but he did not admit having wanted to settle in Syria. The man who shows no sign of radicalism flies to Turkey "to take advantage of a stopover in Rome and disappear into nature." »Then he leaves for Istanbul, where he calls Abou Ali, his contact who joins him in Gaziantep, where he takes a bus to Sanliurfa from February 17, 2015. He is taken care of by a foot smuggler, who at the level of the border, recommends that he continue alone, and finally be taken over by the Islamic State.
1:12 p.m. Usman's journey.
He left his country in August 2015 with his savings to join the Islamic State. For the journey, he follows the advice of a certain "Abou Obeida", a contact on Facebook. He joined a smuggler in Iran that he crossed for ten or fifteen days before reaching Turkey. There, he joined Istanbul, then Gaziantep by bus, after warning Abou Obeida. At nightfall, accompanied by other people, a collective taxi drops them off near the border with Syria. Then they cross the border on foot. Arrived in Syria, he was immediately recovered by fighters of the Islamic State.
1:04 p.m. Usman's childhood.
Muhammad Usman comes from a family of five children, from a "poor" family, who live on "the exploitation of agricultural land. The Pakistani is a Sunni Muslim. From the start of 2013, “we learned that he would be an explosive device for Pakistani jihadist groups“ close to the Taliban and Al Qaeda ”. For ten years he joined the Taliban. "Over this period, we have little information," said the investigator. Usman denies all this information, except learning religion, without incitement to jihad, notes the investigator, based in part on Pakistani intelligence.
13 hours.
Shadow in videoconferencing.
Witness 278SI appears on a courtroom screen.
The DGSI investigator testifies anonymously, only her shadow appears on the screen, behind an opaque plate.
12:56.
The hearing is resumed.
The court must hear a new investigator from the DGSI on the path of Adel Haddadi, a 34-year-old Algerian, and Muhammad Usman, a 28-year-old Pakistani, both arrested in December 2015, a month after the attacks, in a home migrants in Austria.
The two men had left Syria by the migrant route, accompanied by two suicide bombers from the Stade de France.
Muhammad Usman is known to be a former pyrotechnician of Pakistani jihadist groups.
12:30 p.m.
The "blood pact" of the attackers of the Bataclan.
Last Friday, the exploration of the routes of the jihadists in the Iraqi-Syrian zone continued.
Two investigators from the DGSI told how the trio of French attackers from Bataclan would have formed there.
Read our story here.
12 hours.
Hello and welcome to this live,
which follows the hearing of this Tuesday, November 23.