PARIS | A former fellow inmate of Amédy Coulibaly, summoned as a witness at the trial of the January 2015 attacks, estimated on Tuesday that the Charlie Hebdo team, decimated by the Kouachi brothers, had “sought” what happened to him, causing consternation in the room.
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Asked about comments made during his hearing by the investigators, where he considered that the Charlie Hebdo designers “had sought him”, Taoufik K. replied before the special court of assizes in Paris that he “confirmed” his position”.
On January 7, 2015, the Saïd brothers and Chérif Kouachi shot dead ten people in the premises of the satirical newspaper.
“They knew that they were threatened, they added a layer of it, they shot at the branch”, affirmed the witness, blue jacket, shaved head and thin beard, while assuring nevertheless not to support the attacks committed by the brothers Kouachi and Amédy Coulibaly.
The Charlie Hebdo designers, “I didn’t carry them in my heart, what they did was serious. I would have preferred them to be sentenced by the courts, ”continued this restaurant employee, imprisoned in Villepinte prison between 2011 and 2015.
These statements aroused consternation in the courtroom where several survivors of the Charlie Hebdo massacre were present.
Asked to clarify his words, Taoufik B. – who shared the cell of one of the accused, Nezar Mickaël Pastor Alwatik in a remand center – seemed to hesitate, arguing that the attack was not “the fault” of Charlie Hebdo, but “a little bit” despite everything.
“It’s an insult to a whole community. It hurt me too, ”continued the former detainee who had previously presented himself as a Muslim, but opposed to radical Islam.
“What is the insult?”, Was surprised the Advocate General Jean-Michel Bourlès. “The insult is to caricature the prophet,” replied the witness.
“Do you know that caricaturing the prophet is a right in France?”, The Advocate General immediately retorted, “it is a right, and if we do not accept that we have nothing to do in the system of the Republic ”.
Questioned by the court, Nezar Mickaël Pastor Alwatik, accused of having provided logistical support to Amédy Coulibaly, disapproved of the opinions of his ex-fellow inmate.
“What do you want me to tell you, to agree with him to make you happy?” Well no, I don’t agree, ”he blurted out. “His opinions and opinions are his own. I never thought like that, ”insisted the accused.