It is a man who has changed his mind who was heard before the special Assize Court of Paris, Tuesday, February 8. Sofien Ayari did not intend to speak at the trial of the November 13 attacks, he finally decided to do so. Sofien Ayari, companion of Salah Abdeslam, was arrested at the same time as him in March 2016 in Brussels. Ayari, gray sweatshirt and long black beard behind his mask, is one of the youngest accused: 22 years old at the material time, 28 today. A boy who remained almost mute during the five years of instruction and who, today in the box, decides to open up. His French is perfect, some of his expressions are even strong. “I didn’t want to speak here, but after hearing the pain of the families on the stand, including a bereaved mother who looks a lot like mine, I figure it’s the least you can do to try to explain myself. I can do it, I have to do it”, he confides. An attitude welcomed by the president, while two defendants recently opposed their right to silence.
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Ayari is Tunisian. He talks about his departure in December 2014. A student of computer science, he joined Syria in a kind of ideal. “There had been a revolution in my country, major changes. I had the Internet at home. I was interested in what was happening elsewhere, Libya, Egypt and Syria, with the hope that the citizens there- low also free themselves. I was in a feeling of solidarity”, he says. The president points out to him that he did not then choose just any opposition movement by joining the Islamic State. The accused fought against Bashar el-Assad’s troops, but also, he admits, against democratic groups until he was seriously injured. Direction Raqqa, where he was operated on four times, hospitalized for a long time. He is there during the first bombardments which he attributes to the coalition. “I was not prepared for this violence. The front line is something else, it’s war, it’s the game. But there, in Raqqa, I saw the impotence, the humiliation, fear of civilians. Some residents did not even agree with Daesh, but they suffered it anyway. It revolted me”, ends the accused.
And from that moment, Sofien Ayari admits having harbored a certain bitterness towards the Western coalition, and in particular France. Without raising his voice, calmly, he wishes to return to the testimony at the trial of the attacks of November 13 by François Hollande, in November. “He said he had no knowledge that there was collateral damage. But to say that, you have to be blind! It’s no secret. By targeting civilians in the city, necessarily , he was making victims in the population. You have to know how to assume that when you are a politician”, says Sofiane Ayari.
He says it was this bombing experience that motivated him to accept a mission offered by ISIS elsewhere. Understand in Europe. “I resonated with emotion. I said yes”, he remembers, hinting at regrets. “I made the decision to leave. I assume the weight of this decision. Nobody forced me to do so”, says the young man, who promises on the other hand that he was unaware of the nature of the mission. The president asks him: “Did you know there was talk of attacks?” “No, Ayari replies, it was not specified. It was only in Germany that I understood that our destination was Belgium.” The accused recalls that he did not participate directly in the attacks, that he was not in France on November 13. “I didn’t want to participate” he insists. He even says he sent a letter to Raqqa to express his wish to return to Syria. Letter never found by any investigator.
The president, as if extending a hand to the accused: “Mr. Ayari, do you condemn the attacks in Paris?” The interested party drops: “I condemn, but I condemn on both sides those who caused the death of innocent people.” A little later, responding to his lawyer, he confides “remorse” on his journey. Sofien Ayari faces life imprisonment.