At the specially composed assize court,
So it looks like that, hell? A “total demolition” company, the objective of which is the annihilation of any ounce of humanity. A world orchestrated around blows, torture sessions and threats. A world where hunger is such that the size of a piece of bread or an olive is a subject of conflict, where hope lies in an additional toilet tower. A world where “the basic rule is that there is no rule” and where “the same which will give you a cup of tea can give you a beating two hours later”, recalls this Wednesday in front of the specially composed assize court, Didier François.
Twelve years ago, this 64 -year -old journalist, wholesale of war theaters, was abducted in Syria with the photojournalist Edouard Elias while they were preparing a report on the use of chemical weapons by Damascus. Everything went very quickly. This June 6, 2013, they have just passed the border when their car is stopped by five armed and hooded men. Both know Syria well, first think of a checkpoint but quickly understand that it is not. “Hoods on the head, hands in the back, we embark on a van,” describes Edouard Elias. The young man with a slender silhouette, hair in battle and fine lines, was 22 years old when he was removed.
“It was the first simulacrum of execution”
The two men completely ignore that their captors are part of an emerging terrorist group: the Islamic State. Barely descended from the van, their kidnappers ask them to kneel. A Kalashnikov in the neck. Clac. “It was the first simulacrum of execution, it is weird,” says Edouard Elias, still in restraint. For four days, they will be attached to a radiator, tirelessly struck, deprived of food and water. “We have no respite. Besides, we hear howls to death, we don’t know what’s going on, “continues the photographer. Hunger and thirst are such that both say they had hallucinations and rushed on the water of the toilet bowl as soon as they had the opportunity. “While she was brown,” insists Didier François.
Quickly, the two men were moved to another place of detention, the Aleppo ophthalmological hospital, the Daesh torture center. In the corridors, dozens of men are suspended from the ceiling, the blood covers the floor and the walls, the cries of the hostages are constant. “They did not even ask questions, they tortured them until killing them,” continues Edouard Elias. Barely arrived, he finds himself placed in isolation. Beaten, tortured. He tells of a word the “nail clips”, drowning simulations, taser … “It was complicated”, he bluntly eludes.
Until this almost surreal scene. In the distance, he distinguishes the word “friend”. Is it a hallucination? What does it matter. Immediately, without really knowing why, he sing the song of supporters. “Friend do you hear the deaf cries of the country that we continue”. A voice rises. That of Didier François who in turn resumes this refrain. “I understand that he is next to me, I am no longer alone. »»
“If we went out, we knew we could say the maximum”
To hear them, both at the helm, we measure the depth of the link that unites them. They define themselves as a pair, it is much more than that. Their lives are linked. Throughout their detention, one will not move forward without the other. Together, they will resist the dehumanization that the Islamic State is trying to impose. If they have strong links with the other hostages, especially with the other French journalists kidnapped a few days after them, nothing will equal their friendship. “I will never have held eleven months if Edouard had not shown me his strength, his courage and his soul,” insists Didier François. Even today, we feel them accomplices. Didier François explodes with laughter when his young colleague tells the court “their fourteen million roommates” (from the morpions) or his taciturn mood because he is hungry (they will lose both of them between twenty and thirty kilos) .
If both entrust to the death that they have considered death, they say they have decided to live to testify. Therefore, they methodically collect the maximum information. “We took stock every day when we leave from June 6, taking up all the protruding points,” explains Didier François. During their eleven months of detention, they will almost never see their jailers. Be because the latter hide their face, either because the hostages are forced to wear a headband on the eyes. But their hearing is refined and little by little. In their voice, their approach, their way of giving a blow, they learn to recognize their jailers, especially French speakers.
“I am formal”
“There is a voice in this room that I formally recognize. I am formal, it is at the bottom of my guts, ”specifies Edouard Elias, while he is about to conclude his testimony. He does not have a look for Mehdi Nemmouche seated a few meters, in the accused box, but it is of him that he talks about. The photojournalist is certain to have recognized the 39 -year -old Roubaisian, already sentenced to life for the attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels. “This voice that I heard here is the voice that brought me for hours, terrorized me, which made me piss off in cells,” he insists.
His acolyte, a few hours later, will not say anything else. “I have no doubt, strictly no doubt,” continues Didier François. I knew him more talkative, but he does what he wants. The respondent, short hair, imposing build, remains inexpressive. On the first day of the trial, he denied the facts. Based on the accused’s box, he sometimes seems to listen, sometimes elsewhere. On the other hand, neither formally recognizes the other two accused.
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