Attacks of November 13: the former Minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, at the helm

Published on : 11/17/2021 – 19:51

Specific threats to the Bataclan, potential slowness of intervention by the BRI … at the trial of the November 13 attacks, the former Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve evacuated, on Wednesday November 17, the controversial questions raised for six years by civil parties.

Supporting figures and without any note, the former first police officer in France has been defending his action for nearly an hour before the special assize court in Paris when it spontaneously comes to controversies, anticipating future questions from civil party lawyers.

>> To read: Attacks of November 13: “I would do exactly the same thing today”, assures François Hollande

Have the police officers, just like soldiers from Operation Sentinel, “been prevented from intervening” to put an end to the hostage-taking at the Bataclan, begins Bernard Cazeneuve, double-breasted jacket, pocket square, tie with green patterns .

“Very hurt”

“Six years later, my conviction remains: we cannot bring in forces which are not specialized, not prepared. (…) Only the BRI and the Raid could intervene to save the hostages”, affirms the witness, quoted by the civil party.

“Could this intervention have been faster?” In an always equal tone, Bernard Cazeneuve details the arrivals of each of the teams, stressing that the BRI is present in front of the Bataclan in “25 minutes”, that is to say within the time limits set to face the risk of an attack.

“I was very hurt, not personally but for them, I am a minister who passes, when I saw the way in which they were implicated”, loose the former Prime Minister.

In the same way, he would have taken, “it is obvious”, “the arrangements to ensure the protection” of the Bataclan if he had been informed of any threat, mentioned by civil parties and former police officials.

Bernard Cazeneuve says it “solemnly before the court”: he “never received a note” or “any document” in this sense.

“By what strange logic” he would have left the auditorium without protection, he retorts again, faced with the insistence of certain civil party lawyers.

Insufficient border control system

The former Minister of the Interior returns to another “controversy”: the “way in which Salah Abdeslam was arrested on the morning of November 14” 2015. The way in which the only surviving member of the commandos projected by the Islamic State (EI) was “controlled”, corrects Bernard Cazeneuve.

In the aftermath of the attacks which killed 130 people in Paris and Saint-Denis, Salah Abdeslam fled to Belgium, helped by two accomplices, also tried by his side. Controlled on the highway by French gendarmes, Salah Abdeslam continued on his way and was not arrested until four months later in Brussels.

This failure is one of the “blind spots” of European judicial cooperation at the time denounced by Bernard Cazeneuve.

>> To read: Trial of November 13: the names of the victims resonate in the courtroom

“The legal framework in force at the time did not allow his arrest,” summarizes the former Prime Minister. “The control system at the European Union’s external borders was insufficient,” he admits.

Asked about his personal experience of November 13, he evacuates again: “What I felt is nothing compared to the unfathomable pain of families.” This is why he “remained extremely discreet” on his feelings after that night of horror, explains the former Minister of the Interior.

“Could we have done otherwise?”

The armor finally cracks when the first assessor Frédérique Aline asks him if he has “regrets”, given his knowledge of the state of the threat in France, faced in 2015 with an unprecedented wave of attacks and to multiple departures of its nationals in Syria.

“Could we have done otherwise?” Replied the witness. “Not a day has passed that I haven’t asked myself if there was something I could have done that I didn’t do. This question haunts me all the time.” , he admits.

“Despite the mobilization, attacks have occurred, lives have been shattered, French people are inconsolable,” continues the former Prime Minister.

“I can only wonder (…) and I will continue to question myself until my last breath”, he said again.

The hearing of the former Minister of the Interior lasted more than three hours. Neither the national anti-terrorism prosecution nor the defense lawyers asked him any questions.

With AFP