The National Anti-terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) on Wednesday called for Mohamed Lamine Aberouz to be tried for “aiding and abetting the murder of a public official as part of a terrorist attack”, among other charges.
The murder of a police couple in their home in Magnanville (Yvelines) on June 13, 2016 had caused a wave of consternation among police forces, but also throughout the country. Jean-Baptiste Salvaing (42), deputy commander of the Les Mureaux police station (Yvelines), and his partner Jessica Schneider (36), administrative assistant at the Mantes-la-Jolie police station, had been killed by the terrorist Larossi Abballa with a knife while their three-year-old son was in the flat. The 25-year-old murderer had been shot dead shortly afterwards by the security forces when they stormed the building.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) on Wednesday called for 28-year-old Mohamed Lamine Aberouz to be brought to justice. He was arrested in Les Mureaux after almost 18 months of investigation and charged on December 11, 2017 with “aiding and abetting the murder of persons who are representatives of state authority in connection with a terrorist organisation” and subsequently remanded in custody.
Mohamed Lamine Aberouz is accused of being in the flat of the police couple at the time of their murder. His DNA was actually found on the hand rest of the deceased’s computer, which the terrorist had used for the live transmission of his confession message on Facebook. In the “prevailing confusion”, Mohamed Lamine Aberouz was able to “escape unnoticed”, according to the prosecution.
The accused is also suspected of having known about Larossi Abballa’s terror plots, as he had met with him several times in 2016. In addition, he is said to have had ideological influence on him. The two men had the same fiancée: Sarah Hervouët. The latter was sentenced to 20 years in prison for an attempted attack with gas bottles – which were placed in a car – not far from Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2016. In that case, Mohamed Lamine Aberouz was given a five-year sentence for failing to report a terrorist crime. The defendant denied any involvement in the attack in Magnanville.
For their part, two men were suspected of having given logistical support to the terrorist: Charaf Din Aberouz, 35, Mohamed’s older brother, and Saad Rajraji, 32, who in 2013 – like Larossi Abballa – had been convicted in an Afghan-Pakistani jihad recruitment network. Prosecutors eventually called for proceedings in their cases to be dropped.
“After these years of investigation, we are left with the frustration and concern that we still do not know why Commander Salvaing was targeted and how the Islamists had access to his personal address,” reacted Thibault de Montbrial, the lawyer for Jessica Schneider’s family, to the verdict, quoted by the Paris Region daily.