“I owe it to him to be alive today”, testifies a former hostage saved by gendarme Arnaud Beltrame

“I often think of him, I pray for him”, testifies Julie, survivor of the attack, at the microphone of France Bleu Occitanie on Monday as the trial of the terrorist’s relatives opens before the special assize court of Paris.

“I owe it to him to be alive today, to be able to take care of my family“, believes Julie, survivor of the Trèbes attack about Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, Monday January 22 at the microphone of France Bleu Occitanie. On March 23, 2018, the gendarme took the place of this hostess of the Super U targeted by the attack as a hostage.

The trial of the attacks which cost the lives of four people, including Lieutenant-Colonel Beltrame, in Trèbes and Carcassonne, in Aude, opens Monday before the special assize court of Paris. Seven relatives of the murderer will be tried. The jihadist claimed to be a member of the Islamic State. He had been shot in Trèbes.

The attacker “really took me like a shield, putting himself behind me, putting his gun on my head and putting his knife on the other side on my ribs” at the time when the police “enter the store”remembers Julie, who was 39 years old at the time of the events. “I felt his gun shaking on my head”she continues.

“For me, he’s like a big brother”

“It seems to me that it was the terrorist who, at the start, as a provocation, said to him ‘come on’. Arnaud Beltrame immediately seized the opportunity and negotiated the exchange”, says Julie. The gendarme intervenes just when she thinks “that the bullets will fly”. “He immediately engages in dialogue with the terrorist” and proceeds with the hostage exchange “with the idea that he had many more tools and possibilities than me to get out alive”, Julie explains.

“For me, he’s like a big brother, I know it seems strange, but I often think of him, I pray for him, I often ask him for help or to guide me,” explains Julie who published her testimony book on January 10 His life for mine by Éditions Artège.