“They made war on us, we responded”: the former French President François Hollande was heard on Wednesday at the high security trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, which brought mourning to Paris. He was called as a witness.
Since September 8, France has tried 14 men accused, to varying degrees, of having participated in the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris and its suburbs. Attacks claimed by the Islamic State (IS) armed group, which resulted in the deaths of 130 people.
Since the opening of the trial, Holland’s name has resonated several times in the courtroom, especially from the box, where Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the commandos, justified the jihadist attacks by presenting them as a response to the foreign policy of France and its then president.
Assuring ” [mesurer] the suffering of the victims “, François Hollande certified:” Alas, we did not have the information which would have been decisive to prevent the attacks. “
Since the January 2015 attacks against the irreverent newspaper Charlie hebdo, who had published caricatures of Muhammad, and the Hyper Cacher store, “Every day we were under threat. We knew there were operations being prepared, individuals mingling with the flow of refugees, leaders in Syria. We knew all this, ”developed the former socialist president (2012-2017).
“But we didn’t know where, when and how they were going to strike,” he insisted on several occasions.
Unfortunately, we did not have the information that would have been decisive in preventing the attacks
Without a glance towards the box of the defendants, to his left, the former President of the Republic responded to the explanations of the main defendant, Salah Abdeslam, who described the attacks as a response to the French military intervention in Syria.
“They made war on us and we responded”, defended François Hollande. At ease before the Court, he recalls that the strikes in Syria did not begin until “September 27” 2015 – “which means that the commando had prepared well before”, he maintains.
The EI group “struck us not for our modes of action abroad, but for our lifestyles here”, emphasizes François Hollande.
“Try to listen to me”
Pushed by the defense of Salah Abdeslamà to explain himself more in depth on the French military intervention against the EI group, François Hollande ended up showing a certain annoyance. “Could the French strikes have caused collateral victims in Syria and Iraq? Olivia Ronen asks. “What is the meaning of your question? »Replied Mr. Hollande.
“You want to establish a link between what we are doing and the attacks”, insinuates the witness, who says that he has “no knowledge of collateral victims”. Me Ronen reminds him: “So there were no collateral victims?” “
The ex-president is losing patience. “Try to listen to me”, “I can’t be more specific […] we make sure that there never is ”.
After five weeks of hearing victims, the name of François Hollande had resounded again, this time in the mouths of the jihadists of the Bataclan – an auditorium in eastern Paris: a recorder left in the room had captured the entire attack and in particular the demands of the attackers.
“You can only blame your president, François Hollande”, we hear several times, between two shots, in the extract of a few minutes of this audio recording that the Court broadcast on October 28.
” A message “
“Did you listen to this audio tape, how did you experience it? “Asked the former head of state a lawyer for a civil party.
For François Hollande, it is “a message” to “make us renounce our interventions in Iraq and Syria” and for “a rupture, a religious war” between the French.
The fact that his name is mentioned in the claims “made him think about [sa] own responsibility, ”he emphasizes.
But, he said grimly, “I would do the exact same thing” today. “I say this in front of the civil parties who are suffering, those who have lost loved ones,” he continued.
After nearly four hours of hearing, the President of the Court, Jean-Louis Périès, thanked the former President of the Republic. In the box, Salah Abdeslam stood up, but the magistrate immediately intervened: “No, no, Mr. Abdeslam, if you have any questions, you go through your advice. The main defendant sat down again. The hearing will resume on Tuesday with hearings from researchers and academics.