An accusation before its time. It happens, during a trial, that a witness is more severe than the prosecutor. Sometimes there are also less nuances. Imam Hassen Chalghoumi is not a prosecutor, but he is little more than a witness: he himself was a victim of the actions of one of the accused in the trial for the murder of Samuel Paty, the Islamist agitator Abdelhakim Sefrioui, tried for having undertaken the hate campaign that will be fatal for the professor.
“Without this individual, Samuel Paty would still be in his class”criticized the imam of Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis), on Wednesday, November 27, before the special court of Paris. Abdelhakim Sefrioui is an old enemy of Hassen Chalghoumi. Between January and April 2010, at the head of his collective Cheikh Yassine, he organized numerous very virulent demonstrations against the imam, whom he criticized for having taken a position “against the use of the full veil.” The latter, subject to death threats, had to be placed under police protection.
From the beginning of his testimony we were able to gauge the legitimate resentment that the witness has held against the accused for almost fifteen years. “My life has ended since Sefrioui came into my life. I am the only imam in the world who preaches in a bulletproof vest.He snapped, visibly moved. Having a coffee on a terrace has become a consolation for me, I can only do it in countries that don’t know me. People put a price on my head at 250,000 euros…” And since the accused has “ destroyed » his life turning him into a “ aim », the imam is convinced that he is also guilty of having eliminated Samuel Paty’s.
“This man put a fatwa on my head”
Therefore, Hassen Chalghoumi will dedicate his entire testimony to denouncing the “ dangerousness » of his best enemy, comparing the smear campaign he suffered in 2010 and the clique launched against the professor ten years later. First element of the Sefrioui method: manifestation. In January 2010, he says, the activists of his collective “When we entered the mosque, we were forced to stop preaching for several weeks”. During a meeting with the school director Samuel Paty, the agitator also threatened to organize a demonstration in front of the establishment.
Second instrument: media coverage. “He brought in foreign media, like Al-Jazeera. My face was everywhere. This man put a fatwa on my head.. They even filmed my wife and insulted her in the markets…” The agitator, in the same way, recorded a video and contacted the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera when he resumed the controversy over the career of Samuel Paty.
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