The Algerian Saber Lahmar presented himself on Tuesday as the ideal culprit at the opening of his trial in Paris for jihadist propaganda and incitement to leave for jihad, which he disputes.
Eight years detained and tortured in Guantanamo then influential imam in France: the Algerian Saber Lahmar presented himself on Tuesday as the ideal culprit at the opening of his trial in Paris for jihadist propaganda and incitement to leave for jihad, which he dispute. He is appearing before the 16th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court for criminal association of terrorist criminals, with another defendant, Mohamed H., considered by the courts as his “second”.
In the box, Mr. Lahmar, black tracksuit top, glasses and bald head, close-cropped hair, answered questions about his winding journey, which according to the prosecution espouses thirty years of globalized jihadism. The Algerian recalled his birth in May 1969 and his theological studies, first in Constantine, where he is suspected of having belonged to the Islamic Army Group (GIA); in Medina, Saudi Arabia, then, according to him “for the sole purpose of studying” Islam.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1996 and 2001, he then appeared in a large mosque in Sarajevo, considered a gathering place for Islamists. The Bosnians handed him over to the Americans in early 2002 with five other Algerians, suspected of having fomented an attack against the United States Embassy. He is transferred to the notorious Guantanamo military prison on the island of Cuba.
“I am aware of why I am here”
Before the court, Mr. Lahmar detailed the tortures experienced until 2008: “They used gas with me, dogs, water to suffocate”. The Algerian says he was “tied to a chair for 18 hours” on a regular basis or even having alternated over two years “a cell without any light” then “another (…) with light 24 hours a day”. Finally cleared by American justice, he was welcomed by France on December 1, 2009 and settled in the Bordeaux region, aspiring, he said, to “live peacefully, freely and in safety”.
But after his arrival in France, Mr. Lahmar is suspected of having used his religious knowledge to become a renowned “sheikh” in the Bordeaux region, and above all of having delivered jihadist propaganda in two places of prayer. He is also accused of having incited several aspirants to jihad, a single man and a couple with four children, to leave for Iraq or Syria in the summer of 2015.
Willingly prolific in Arabic, the defendant therefore took the opportunity of his first speech to immediately reject the charges against him and present himself as the victim of his career. “I am aware of why I am here; it is not Salim Machou or Othman Yekhlef” who are there, he noted.
These two men had been the starting points of the investigation targeting him: Salim Machou, the first to leave with a wife and children and sentenced to death in 2019 by the Iraqi justice system for his membership in the Islamic State group; Othman Yekhlef, considered “dead on the spot” since the end of 2015. “My religion led me here”, decided the one his peers called “the sheikh”.
“I am not responsible for anyone, only myself”
Saber Lahmar spoke on a rare occasion in French and recalled this extraordinary element of his profile, interpreted according to him for the prosecution: “I made Guantanamo”. He then switches back to Arabic: “For justice”, which is looking for those responsible for these departures from the Levant, “it’s convincing. But I don’t think we can play with justice in this sense.
“Today, I am in detention because I knew someone who went to Syria”, Salim Machou. “But he can go where he wants, on the Moon or under the Earth, it’s not my problem, I’m not responsible for anyone, only myself”, defended the defendant again, excluding “of to be the guide of so and so”.
On Wednesday, the court will begin examining the substance of the suspicions hanging over him: in addition to these suspicions of incitement to leave for the area, he is suspected of “very violent remarks” during sermons “attacking Jews, calling for to kill apostates and to martyrdom”, which would have been held in a mosque but also in a clandestine prayer room in Gironde.
He is also accused of links with several figures of jihadism in France. The trial is to be held until Friday.