Trials for terrorist attacks sometimes give rise to a feeling of strangeness during the first days of the hearing, dedicated to the personality of the accused. We talk about his childhood, more or less mild, his schooling, often chaotic, one’s passion for motorcycles, another’s girlfriend, an internship at Darty, etc., taking care never to talk about the substance of the story. record. This compartmentalization of the debates can sometimes give the impression of a discrepancy between the profile of certain defendants and the extreme seriousness of the facts with which they are accused.
This disturbing dissonance was felt by the entire audience on Tuesday, November 5, on the second day of the trial for the murder of history and geography teacher Samuel Paty, with the beginning of the examination of the life trajectories of the eight defendants. the special court of Paris. In the absence of the killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee murdered by police officers just minutes after the attack, on October 16, 2020, it was two of his friends who opened this sequence.
Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov were 18 and 19 years old at the time of the events. A few months before the attack, these two high school students with a mediocre academic background had just obtained their vocational baccalaureate in Evreux, where they grew up. They have been sleeping in prison for four years waiting for this trial.
They are the ones who face the most severe penalty: life imprisonment for “complicity in terrorist murder.” They are accused, in particular, of having helped the terrorist buy the knife with which Samuel Paty was beheaded.
” Introvert “
With her thin face and twisted white sweater, Naïm Boudaoud looks like a bird that has fallen from its nest. Described by personality researcher as ” introvert “to the point that his parents initially believed he was autistic, he was born very “puny” and has fueled, over the years, a deep complex.
Naïm Boudaoud grew up in a certain material and emotional comfort. His parents, two qualified civil servants of Algerian origin, made sure that he did not lack for anything. He was one of the few young people in his neighborhood who had a car: “I have been a fan of cars and motorcycles since I was little and I was lucky enough to have a Golf 7”he boasts in his fragile voice. TO ” chance ” which will take you to the dock.
One day, around the age of 17, Naïm Bouadaoud met Azim Epsirkhanov, a Chechen refugee a year older than him, in Evreux. Arrived in France at the age of 9 with his parents to escape the war, the latter is as strong as Naïm is thin. Naïm has just been the victim of an attack; Azim offers to fix his “confuses”. Neither of the two new friends becomes radicalized. Both come from families with a Muslim culture where religious practice is almost non-existent.
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