Five of them are suspected of having, knowing of his radicalization, provided their support to the terrorist Radouane Lakdim, shot dead by the police on the day of the attack, in March 2018.
Nearly six years after the attacks in Trèbes and Carcassonne (Aude), the trial of a woman and six men, aged 23 to 34, opens before the Paris Special Assize Court, Monday January 22 . The terrorist Radouane Lakdim was shot dead during the assault by the police in the Super U of Trèbes, on March 23, 2018. Before that, this 25-year-old man, who presented himself as a soldier of the Islamic State (IS) group, had made four victims, including Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, who exchanged the place of an employee held hostage, Julie Grand, for his own.
Although ISIS had, at the time, claimed responsibility for these attacks, the investigations did not make it possible to establish a link between the author and the organization. On the other hand, they made it possible to identify several people in Radouane Lakdim’s entourage. After four years of investigation, none of them was brought before the courts for complicity. Five are appearing for criminal terrorist association (AMT), a charge punishable by thirty years in prison. Franceinfo presents these defendants to you and explains what they are accused of.
Radouane Lakdim’s best friend and his ex-girlfriend
Samir Manaa, 28, is Radouane Lakdim’s closest friend in this case. The two men hung out together in the Ozanam district of Carcassonne to play sports and, according to the prosecution, drug trafficking. If no element has made it possible to demonstrate any radicalization of Samir Manaa, as recognized by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) in its final indictment, this temporary worker in the building could not, according to the Pnat and the investigating judges , ignore that of Radouane Lakdim. Nor his obsession with weapons. It was therefore knowingly, according to the anti-terrorism magistrates, that he took him to an armory, two weeks before the events, to buy a knife, used to slit the throat of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame.
Since his arrest in October 2018, Samir Manaa claims to have always ignored the terrorist intentions of his “pal”. “I wasn’t supposed to know what he was going to do with the knife.”, he declared to investigators. Contacted by franceinfo, his lawyer, Guy Debuisson, did not wish to respond. Still in pre-trial detention, his client will appear in the box.
Radouane Lakdim’s ex-girlfriend was released after two years and placed under judicial supervision. Marine Pequignot met Radouane Lakdim at the age of 14 – he was 22 – then converted to Islam. For the prosecution, the young woman shared the same radical vision of religion, since she planned to go to Syria, and could not, either, ignore Radouane Lakdim’s desire to take action. “Its place is ultimately peripheral in the file”, estimate his lawyers, Alexandra Boret and Benjamin Bohbot, who reserve their defense for the assize court. According to them, Marine Pequignot was under “the influence” of this much older man and their relationship was strained at the time of the events.
An Internet user already convicted of acts of terrorism
The third accused referred for criminal terrorist association, Sofian Boudebbouza, 25, was already convicted when he was a minor for planning to go to the Iraqi-Syrian zone in 2017. This time he will be tried for having provided a intellectual support for Radouane Lakdim. The two men began discussing on a discussion forum aligned with jihadist ideology, three months before the attacks. The future terrorist then thought that it was forbidden to kill certain categories of people (children, elderly people, women, etc.) in the name of jihad. According to investigators, Sofian Boudebbouza convinced him otherwise. They continued to converse “actively”, according to the Pnat, for a little over a month. According to the prosecution, the young man “worked on the assailant’s deadly project” and provided him “religious arguments justifying a murderous act”. Placed under judicial supervision, he faces life imprisonment, given that he is a repeat offender.
His lawyer ensures that Sofian Boudebbouza “is waiting for this trial to explain itself and hopes to be heard by its judges”. According to Margot Pugliese, it has been years since her client “proclaims his innocence. He did not at all want to comfort Radouane Lakdim, whom he has never met, and encourage his action.”
“The question that arises is whether an ideological positioning can characterize a terrorist criminal association without any knowledge of the author or his project.”
Margot Pugliese, lawyer for Sofian Boudebbouzaat franceinfo
The terrorist’s brother-in-law and a drug trafficker
Ahmed Arfaoui, 28, is also appearing for criminal AMT, while the Pnat had requested his dismissal for failure to report a terrorist crime and subtraction of evidence. Brother-in-law of Radouane Lakdim, he is accused of having “refrained from reporting to the judicial authorities” his wife’s brother, even though he had “perfect knowledge” of his radicalization and his “criminal project”. After the attacks, he chose for his WhatsApp profile photo an image featuring Radouane Lakdim, with the mention “God save him”. He is also accused of having cleaned the Lakdim home on the day of the attack, taking a large bag with him before a police search.
According to his lawyers, Emmanuelle Franck and Alexandre Martin, this indictment is based on “only one witness”, the co-defendant Samir Manaa, and does not fall into the preparatory nature of the terrorist criminal association. In pre-trial detention for four and a half years, Ahmed Arfaoui will be the second accused in the box.
“Our client is very empathetic with the civil parties but does not feel concerned. And yet, it is he who is being held accountable.”
Emmanuelle Franck, lawyer for Ahmed Arfaouiat franceinfo
The fifth accused referred for criminal terrorist association is Reda El Yaakoubi, placed under judicial supervision. This 34-year-old man is presented by the prosecution as the leader of drug trafficking in the Ozanam district of Carcassonne. According to the Pnat, he made Radouane Lakdim work on his behalf, without ignoring his “adherence to the deadly theses of IS”. In this, he “given access to financial means and weapons enabling the preparation and carrying out of his planned attack”.
“The intelligence services themselves had not imagined that Radouane Lakdim was capable of taking action!”underlines Reda El Yaakoubi’s lawyer, Edouard Martial.
Two acquaintances tried for related offenses
Two other men, also under judicial supervision, will be tried for related offenses. Sofiane Manaa, the brother of Samir Manaa, will appear for possession of weapons, while he was also indicted for criminal AMT. “It is a great decision which was not easy to obtain given the popular pressure and the unsustainable nature of these terrorist acts, which I am the first to condemn”, his lawyer, Pierre Debuisson, commented to France 3. Baghdad Haddaoui was dismissed for failure to report a terrorist crime. According to the investigating judges, this knowledge of Radouane Lakdim had “information” about his “possession of weapons” and its “willingness to take action” but did not notify the authorities. His defense did not wish to comment.