A modified voice, a blurred dark silhouette, a borrowed first name … The woman who denounced Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the coordinator of the attacks of November 13, testified, Friday, April 8, before the special assize court of Paris , with all the necessary precautions to preserve his anonymity. Key witness to the investigation, the first in France to be protected by decree, “Sonia”, as we will call her, recounted her meeting with the terrorist and her decision to notify the police afterwards. A “sacrifice” which changed her life, as well as that of her children and her companion, but which she does not regret. “I would rather give my life than condone the death of other people”dropped this 48-year-old woman on the 109th day of hearing.
Sonia began by immersing herself in the disastrous evening of November 13, 2015. Like many French people, she watches, in her apartment in Seine-Saint-Denis, the friendly football match between France and Germany, which takes place at Stade de France. Three terrorists blow themselves up around the enclosure, but the match is not interrupted. Suddenly a message appears on the screen: it warns of the attacks that are in progress. Sonia then sees Hasna Aït Boulahcene, a 26-year-old adrift woman that this volunteer hosts for him “give a second chance”pass in front of the television “laughing, saying it was normal because they were miscreants”.
Two days later, Hasna, “overexcited”, receives a phone call and an address to go to a mysterious meeting. “A gentleman asked him to pick up his 17-year-old cousin who was having problems”, reports Sonia at the hearing. In reality, it is Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Hasna jumps into his arms when he comes out of a bush near an embankment, below the highway, in Aubervilliers. Then he goes to Sonia, who has accompanied the young woman. “He arrived, he shook my hand, he introduced himself”, she remembers. According to her testimony, she quickly makes the connection.
“I said to him, ‘Did you take part in the attacks?’ He said to me: ‘Yes, the terraces are me.’ I froze. I wanted to cut my hand.”
Sonia, witnessduring the hearing
Sonia engages in conversation and tries to convince Abdelhamid Abaaoud “that he killed innocent people, that Islam is not that”. “He told me that we were pieces of white bread, that he wants us to jump in the morning when he gets up.” Le coordinator of the attacks terraces and the Bataclan the threat of retaliation if she says something.
“All night, we did not sleep”, continues Sonia. His modified voice, with the metallic accents of a robot, resonates in the room. His shadowy figure, double, moves slightly on the screen. She recounts her decision to call the toll-free number dedicated to the attacks. “I explained who I had seen. They did not believe me. I was threatening, I insisted”, she relates.
Finally, she is heard by the investigators of the Anti-Terrorism Sub-Directorate (Sdat) and gives them a decisive detail. “I was asked if something had marked me. I said: ‘Yes, his orange sneakers’. They brought me a photo board. I recognized Abaaoud very well”, explains Sonia. This pair of neon orange sneakers is far from trivial: these are the shoes worn by Abdelhamid Abaaoud on the CCTV images of the metro, on November 13, 2015, when he had just participated in the attacks on the terraces of Paris. They will be found five days later, during the Raid attack on a building in Saint-Denis where the commando leader had taken refuge.
A “stash” that the investigators locate thanks to Sonia. The latter succeeds in convincing Hasna Ait Boulahcene to give him the address. “The gentleman from La Sdat told me to go get a bottle to make her talk and it’s true that it worked”reveals Sonia, who describes Hasna as a young woman “with a chaotic history”, who “wore the niqab and at the same time drank alcohol and smoked”. The anecdote makes you smile in the middle of its staggering story. Because it is also during this conversation that Hasna reveals that her cousin is preparing attacks in a shopping center in La Défense (Hauts-de-Seine). Sonia trembles with fear, but she reminds the investigators: “I say to La Sdat: ‘It’s going to happen very soon, they’re going to attack on Thursday’.” “Your gesture could have avoided other attacks”greets the president of the special assize court.
The tone is the same on the side of the lawyers for the civil parties, who congratulate her on her courage. But the witness appears as a bruised woman. While Samia Maktouf, lawyer for several victims of the attacks, reveals that Sonia “washed his hands with bleach” after his meeting with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the latter still entrusts to reproduce this gesture. “I felt betrayed, I felt dirty. You know, when you shake hands with an assassin… It’s like it was me who killed those innocent people, it was a shame, a scar that I will keep for life”she breathes.
Although followed by a health professional, Sonia testifies to the difficulty of leading a normal life. It evokes insomnia and the painful memory of the attacks, revived each year.
“My psychiatrist makes me realize that I am a victim too, but I don’t want to be a victim, I don’t want to take the victims’ place.”
Sonia, witnessduring the hearing
However, the victims want to pay tribute to this woman. At the end of his testimony, some applause resounded from the side of the civil parties. “This is not the place to show up”, takes up the president of the special assize court of Paris. Calm restored, he suspends the hearing.