As the trial of the Nice attacks enters its second week, in a room very close to the Palais de Justice in Paris, the appeal trial of the January 2015 attacks opens on Monday, September 12: Charlie Hebdo, Montrouge and the Hyper Kosher, which had made 17 dead. If the terrorists, the Kouachi brothers and Ahmedy Coulibaly, had been killed, 14 people had been tried and convicted during the first trial at the end of 2020. But two defendants appealed and will therefore be in the box.
On one side, Amar Ramdani, friend of Amedy Coulibaly, the Montrouge and Hyper Kosher terrorist. They met in prison and for the judges, he could not ignore Coulibaly’s adherence to the ideology of Daesh. Just before the attacks, he talked a lot by phone and face to face with him. Amar Ramdani was sentenced to 20 years in prison at first instance, he is now retried for “association of terrorist criminals”.
On the other, Ali Rizat Polat: we saw him nervous, voluble and provocative during the first trial. He had been sentenced to 30 years in prison and is retried for “complicity in terrorist crimes”. He is suspected of having helped Amedy Coulibaly to obtain the weapons used during the attacks. Anti-terrorism judges say Ali Rizat Polat appears “at all stages of preparation” attacks. Immediately after these attacks, he had tried to flee to Syria. For this second trial, he changed lawyers and chose Mr. Moad Nefati, who is betting his defense strategy on neglected documents in the file, according to him, “in a botched investigation”.
“These are avenues of investigation that have not been explored and obviously that reshuffles the cards a little, with regard to the demonstration of the public prosecutor. In reality, we are proposing a new reading of the file to the Court.
Me Moad Nefati, lawyer for Ali Rizat Polaat franceinfo
“We have notebooks, telephone directories of Amedy Coulibaly, which give interesting information: we have people who call on telephone booths, so obviously who care about their anonymityhe explains.
296 civil parties will face them: survivors, wounded and bereaved. Some will return to the bar to deliver their testimonies, others will not because it is too trying to relive. Expectations vary according to individual stories and needs. As in the first instance, there will be a political and intellectual dimension. Freedom of expression, the right to blasphemy and the fight against anti-Semitism will be at the heart of the debates and pleadings. Among the new witnesses cited are the Syrian opposition poet Omar Youssef Souleiman and the lay rabbi Delphine Horvilleur. For Charlie Hebdo’s lawyer, Me Richard Malka, “from the moment this second trial exists, it must serve”.
“My duty is to try to dig ever deeper into the analysis of the causes of these attacks and how to fight them. Because the response must obviously be legal, but that’s not how we will win. this fight, which is first and foremost a fight of ideas.”
Me Richard Malka, lawyer for Charlie Hebdoat franceinfo
According to him, this battle of ideas “is still relevant unfortunately” : he takes as an example the attack against Salman Rushdie or the assassination of Yvan Colonna “because he spoke ill of the Prophet”. Richard Malka had published his first instance pleading in full, and is already working on the second, expected around October 15. The verdict will fall on October 21.
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