For almost two weeks, the magistrates who make up the special court in Paris and the two representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office have done everything possible to make Peter Cherif speak. He expressed himself well, during endless digressions, on different topics. But with each question regarding his career in the ranks of Al Qaeda in Yemen and his possible role in the attack on charlie hebdo for his friend Chérif Kouachi, he always responded: “I won’t answer that question. »
We had a brief hope, on Wednesday, September 25, that the jihadist’s armor would crack when his mother implored him to open up. “I would like Peter to respond to me, to come out of his silence, it’s time to spit out what he has to say. The silence in which he locks himself condemns him, the silence is like a confession. Talk ! she implored him. Say it, empty your bag! Let’s get this over with once and for all. Get rid of that knot in your stomach… These people have lost a loved one, put yourself in their place. They came looking for an answer…”
The president, Frédérique Aline, then addressed the accused: “Your mother, you haven’t seen her physically in years. This opportunity may not be repeated soon…
– I do not wish to react”said Peter Cherif.
A “little man on the road”
On Thursday morning we had new hope that he would finally collapse after the testimony of his former religious mentor, the one through whom everything happened: the emir of the jihadist network known as “Buttes Chaumont”, Farid Benyettou. It is this man who, in the early 2000s, indoctrinated a group of young people from a working-class neighborhood of 19my district of Paris, among whom were Peter Cherif and Chérif Kouachi.
The former emir has changed. Today a heavy vehicle driver, he made his “little man on the road”As he says, he distanced himself from “jihadist ideology”. A step back that allowed him to recognize his friend in the bar. “sharing of responsibility” in the careers of his former students, most of whom died in the war, in Iraq or Syria. And when speaking with the accused, impassive in his glass box, the former mentor felt overcome with emotion: “First of all, I’m sorry! Sorry for everything »he said, on the verge of tears.
“You recognized your responsibility, you explained your evolution in the face of jihadist ideology. Where do you think Peter Cherif has progressed? the president asked him.
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