Trial of the November 13 attacks: the Bataclan was “a target of opportunity”, according to the former boss of the DGSI

He was to be heard on November 16, 2016 after Bernard Bajolet, former director of the DGSE, but being late that day, his testimony had been postponed. It is therefore this Friday, December 17, the last day of hearing of the year 2021 at the trial of the Paris attacks, that Patrick Calvar, former boss of the DGSI, spoke before the special assize court of Paris.

“I served for 40 years in the national police and I fought for 25 years against terrorism. These years have been marked by a number of attacks which have claimed many lives. I think of all these. victims and I do not forget above all that Islamist terrorism first kills Muslims in their own country “, indicates the specialist in his introductory remarks.

Citing the successive attacks that have struck France over the years, Patrick Calvar, 66, in dark suit, blue shirt and tie, admits that all these attacks have been “failures for services “. “The first mission of the services is to avoid the commission and we could not do it”, he regrets, while in 2015 the DGSI only had “3300 investigators”. They are now 4,700. The porosity of the borders at the time did not work in favor of the police either, with “over a million people crossing and a lack of control”.

Patrick Calvar also specifies the situation as it was in November 2015. Eleven of the people involved to varying degrees in the attacks or their preparation were listed S before the attacks: Mohamed Abrini, Osama Krayem, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the brothers Fabien and Jean- Michel Cain, Samy Amimour, Ismaël Mostefai, Foued Mohamed Aggad, Chakib Akrouh, Abdellah Chouaa, and Najim Laachraoui. For international cooperation, the DGSI then had relations with more than 100 countries. As of November 2015, 1,215 reports had been made to the Turkish authorities.

“On the morning of November 13, 2015, we had 568 French individuals or residing in France present in the Syrian-Iraqi zone, including 199 women and 16 minor combatants, 247 individuals returning to the territory, 141 individuals presumed dead, 256 individuals in transit in a third country, 707 individuals having expressed the intention to leave for Syria. In total, 1760 individuals formally identified, to which must be added those whom we did not know “, details in detail the former number 1 of the DGSI. He adds that “156 investigations were opened 957 individuals targeted, 275 arrested, 131 imprisoned, 38 under judicial supervision, 18 networks dismantled since October 2013”.

“I never spoke publicly. Our words will never console the victims, but I would like them to understand who we were, how we worked “, would like to add Patrick Calvar in his spontaneous statement.

“Were there any particular threats to the Bataclan ?, iQuestion the president after the spontaneous statements of the witness. “I was never aware of real threats, acquired, when I took office (in May 2012)”, assures Patrick Calvar.

Regarding Farouk Ben Abbes, he underlines that the Belgian-Moroccan had benefited in 2012 from a dismissal in an investigation into planned attacks reported in 2009 by the Egyptian authorities, where the Bataclan performance hall appeared among the targets .

“Among terrorists, the targets are often of opportunity with a single objective: to make the maximum number of victims and therefore to have the maximum impact on the population. Look at the targets: Stade de France, terraces, concert hall. Which happened at the Bataclan is unfortunately, sadly, for me a target of opportunity. As the Stade de France has been, as the terraces have been “, deplores the former boss of the DGSI.

The Advocate General returns to the words of the Bataclan terrorists who, in the room, on the day of the attacks, said they were attacking France in response to the coalition strikes in Syria. “How can you say that when they kept killing people day after day in their own country? Islamists kill Muslims first and foremost,” repeats Patrick Calvar.

“Why do the terrorists at the Bataclan say they are hitting France? Because France has intervened. These demands exist”, insists Me Nogueras. Patrick Calvar, former boss of the DGSI: “It is the expression of the purest hatred. These people hate who we are.