The Islamist terrorists of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray had fatally wounded him with several knife wounds on July 26, 2016, when they brutally murdered Father Hamel. As the trial for this attack begins on Monday February 14, 92-year-old Guy Coponet gave his testimony to France Info. He recounted how one of the attackers put a mobile phone in his hand so he could film the scene and then the murder of the priest. “They took Father Jacques, he took him out of the pews. They started beating him, a lot…” he reported almost six years after the crime.”I heard him say, “Satan back”, and then, as if on command, “Satan, clear off”. Then it was over because the guy slit his throat”.
The terrorists then attacked Guy Coponet. They tried to cut his throat as well and also stabbed him on the arm and in the back. ” Then they threw me next to the altar”. While the two men “continued to smash everything that could be smashed”, “I squeezed my throat as hard as I could so that it wouldn’t bleed too much. I pretended to be dead,” he continued. His wife, who has since died, was taken hostage by the two assailants as they tried to leave the building, but was rescued by a police officer.
From the trial, the survivor expects above all that “the real people responsible, […] those who gave the orders” will be identified. The two terrorists were shot dead by police officers. The indictment is against three of their relatives, who are suspected of having shared their ideology, known of their plans or tried to join the Islamic State. The instigator of the attack, Rachid Kassim, was reportedly killed in Iraq in 2017, but is still charged due to a lack of evidence of his death.
