a taxi driver recounts his hostage taking during the Strasbourg attack in 2018

The trial of the attack at the Strasbourg Christmas market, which left five people dead and 11 injured, on December 11, 2018, opens Thursday February 29 before the Special Assize Court of Paris. It is scheduled to last until April 5. The hearing will be held in the absence of terrorist Cherif Chekatt, shot dead by the police after two days of tracking. Four men appear on trial for helping him obtain weapons. On the bench of the civil parties in this trial: Mostafa Salhane, a Strasbourg taxi driver who saw Cherif Chekatt get into his taxi.

It is cold this December evening in Strasbourg: it is December 11, 2018. Aboard his taxi, a gleaming Mercedes, Mostafa Salhane, 53, has just dropped off clients, four parliamentarians, in the heart of Strasbourg, Place de little France, when a silhouette emerges. With a bad look, a black look, nervous, the man gets on board. It is 7:58 p.m. and Mostafa does not know that he has just crossed paths with Cheriff Chekatt. Known to the courts for multiple common law crimes and radicalized, he has just shot into the crowd in the middle of the Christmas market, killing five people.

In a book published Thursday 1^er FEBRUARY, 15 minutes to save my life, he looks back on the quarter of an hour which followed this meeting, during which he was the hostage of Cherif Chekatt. The man gets on board. “We stare into each other’s eyes, his hand is hidden under his puffy jacketsays Mostafa. He closes the door and says to me : ‘Roll! Hurry up and ride! Quickly !’. I look at him in the rearview mirror and he’s sweating a lot. He’s really not well, agitated… I tell myself that something is wrong.“

It is then that the attacker reveals himself.

“He is angry and throws the hot potato at me: he has just carried out an attack, killed ten people and also Muslims. He shot at soldiers and believes that he killed and injured them.”

Mostafa Salhane

at franceinfo

Cherif Chekatt also confides to Mostafa that he is injured. “If you act smart, I’ll turn you on!”, he threatens. The driver remembers this exchange: “He claims the attack in relation to what is happening in Syria, in Iraq. He wants to make history. I said to myself: ‘Mostafa, your time has come.'” In this face-to-face encounter, the hostage strives to remain calm, he, the judoka who has learned to control his emotions, to create a dialogue with the terrorist. But Cherif Chekatt has not finished his macabre epic. The next step is to go and attack the Neudorf police station, a central district of Strasbourg, and kill police officers.

But the terrorist is injured: hit in the arm, he bleeds a lot, suffers and screams in pain, to the point that Mostafa Salhane has to stop the taxi just 900 meters from the police station. He remembers that the terrorist shouted these words to him: “You have to take care of me. Hurry up ! Heal me, help me! I am in pain !“. Mostafa then asks him if he should continue driving. “No !he replies. Turn left. There, you will treat me and then you will go to the police station.”

Five years later, still traumatized

The two men get out of the vehicle: “I put a pack of tissues on his injured arm, with a small bottle of water. He takes it and can’t think of anything better than to lower his weapon”, says Mostafa. He decides to take advantage of this moment of inattention and tries to escape. “I back up slowly. I left the car running, the door open. I get in and accelerate.“

On the phone, number 17 does not answer. In less than a minute, Mostafa Salhane went to the police headquarters to notify the security forces. He will be heard immediately and, thanks to him, the investigators identify the terrorist: “I delivered this terrorist on a golden platter to the police“But it will take the police 48 hours to neutralize the terrorist. These 48 hours become “infernal” for the taxi driver, who feels immense guilt.

“I was guilty of not having done enough, of not having controlled him, although he had a weapon, grenades on him and a vest. This is what will eat me from the inside, no more post-traumatic stress.”

Mostafa Salhane

at franceinfo

For five years, Mostafa Salhane’s nights have been filled with nightmares and insomnia. Anxiolytics and sleeping pills do nothing. Because of the shock, he was never able to work again, he divorced and no longer eats. The trial on February 29 therefore represents a crucial step for him, who hopes to finally turn the page, and get rid of this bitterness which is suffocating him. For his heroic gesture, Mostapha Salhane never received the Legion of Honor, just a second-tier medal. “I feel like I’ve been erasedhe writes at the end of his book, the feeling of having been sidelined, while I took my courage in both hands not to flinch in front of the killer and that I described this individual to the eyebrow in order to allow his identification.