More than five years after the events, four people will be tried from this Monday for the assassination of Father Jacques Hamel in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray on July 26, 2016, killed by two Islamist terrorists in full mass.
The two assailants, Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Petitjean, who claimed to belong to Daesh, had been killed by the police on leaving this church in the suburbs of Rouen. The trial which opens on Monday is therefore that of three relatives of the two terrorists, as well as that of the alleged instigator of the attack, Rachid Kassim, presumed dead by the authorities. He was reportedly killed in 2017 in a bombing in Iraq.
The three defendants present in the box are tried for “criminal terrorist association”. Jean-Philippe Jean Louis, Farid Khelil and Yassine Sebaihia are suspected of having been aware of the projects of Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Petitjean and of having shared their ideology. For his part, Rachid Kassim is the only one to be indicted for complicity in the assassination of the priest and the attempted assassination of a parishioner, for having “knowingly encouraged and facilitated the action” of the two terrorists . In particular, he would have promulgated advice to the two young Islamists to commit violent action on the territory.
“understanding the motivations” of the two terrorists
If the main protagonists of this attack, the first in Europe which targeted a priest in full mass, will not be present in the box of the accused, the victims expect a lot from these weeks of trial, and hope in particular that it will help them to ” understand the motivations” of terrorists. Father Hamel’s two sisters, Roseline and Chantal, also want to know why their brother Jacques, “a man of peace”, was “designated as a target”, according to their lawyer, Me Christian Saint-Palais. The objective of the trial will also be to know if there were “shortcomings in the arsenal of prevention”, while one of the assassins was placed under an electronic bracelet at the time of the attack.
It was on July 26, 2016, around 9:30 a.m., that the two terrorists burst into the small church, while Father Hamel was finishing mass there. They then took hostage five parishioners present inside, then stabbed and slit the priest’s throat. One of the parishioners had been forced by the jihadists to film the scene. About an hour later, Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Petitjean were finally killed by the Rouen BRI.
The defendants close to the jihadist spheres
The Archbishop of Rouen Monsignor Dominique Lebrun is therefore waiting for “justice to be rendered” to the victims, and wishes to know what was the degree of involvement of the accused in the assassination of Father Hamel. According to the prosecution, Jean-Philippe Jean Louis, 25, is “very active in the jihadosphere”, and in particular manages pro-Daesh networks on Telegram, as well as online pots to support the jihadist movement.
Farid Khelil, cousin of Abdel-Malik Petitjean, is presented as fascinated by jihadist speeches. Also in contact with Rachid Kassim on Telegram, he would have supported the violent action of his cousin, which he and his lawyer dispute. Yassine Sabaihia, 27, who briefly joined the two terrorists in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray on July 24, says he was unaware of their terrorist project.
Father Hamel could also soon be beatified by the Catholic Church. His case, filed shortly after his assassination, is being examined by the Vatican. Recognition of Father Hamel’s martyrdom would exempt him from obtaining a miracle to be recognized as blessed.