https://actu.fr/ile-de-france/noisy...ettre-un-attentat-le-24-juillet_60007986.html
His long, light brown hair falls over his black polo shirt. Often, he tweaks his little goatee with his fingers. In the box of the Versailles judicial court, this Friday August 25, 2023, Mézian has more the look of a surfer than a terrorist.
And yet, this 25-year-old resident of Noisy-le-Roi (Yvelines) must be tried for justifying an act of terrorism and an attempt to acquire a handgun. According to the investigation, he even planned to carry out “a project.”
Mézian, who converted to Islam at a young age, was targeted by the Versailles criminal investigation department following his postings on Snapchat and Tik Tok. Videos in which he praises jihad and takes very extreme positions. In them, he praises the values of Sharia law as “a necessity.” In them, he describes his idea of an infidel, “a human being who rejects the truth.”
In Noisy-le-Roi, a community of 7,600 inhabitants, Mézian is no stranger. He walks around in a djellaba. He also attracts young people to him. In exchange for sweets or money, he teaches them prayers and the codes of Islam. In the woods, he confirms to them that they will be “the next generation of fighters.”
On July 11, he goes on the Darknet, where he tries to buy his first handgun, a Colt 45. He gets scammed out of 500 euros. He returned there quickly, on July 15, to acquire another, a 7.65 pistol.” Must wait. There was “a lot of demand during the riots,” his contact tells him.
At the same time, the investigators learn from his former fellow prisoner from Condé-sur-Sarthe (Orne – dep. 61) that he has already spoken of a criminal “project.” The man has never hidden his radicalism, which has become more powerful after seven years in prison. Seven years for gang rape committed when he was a minor.
He went through the Radicalization Support District (QPR). He read a lot of history, astrophysics and religious books.
The profile of the man is disturbing. The criminal brigade of the judicial police of Versailles decides to arrest him. Especially since Mézian spoke of a date: July 24. But not of a place. Because, according to him, “it is a key date when the Freemasons were against the armies of the Prophet.”
Before being remanded in custody, he wrote a 6-page letter to the judge. The fine, tight, slanted writing is very calligraphic. It begins with a large drop cap.
In his sentences, he explains his vision of “radicality which is not dangerousness. It allows me to channel myself. He also explains that jihad is a purification and that “the only master I serve is God and his messenger.”
Proselytism? “I don’t do more than that. God called me to bring people to him.”
Faced with his judges, Mézian contests any planned attack. He confirms his withdrawal and a “certain confinement,” after his passage in QPR, where he could be fully searched seven times an hour.
“When I was released, I felt confused, attacked from the outside, by the influx of information.”
To the accusations of an attack, he responds with the madness of his informer. “Me, I just want to make my life, to work. There, I am a temporary worker on a construction site at the King’s Stables, in Versailles.”
For the public prosecutor, all this takes on a more than unpleasant hue.
“The explanations he gives, he is the only one to understand them. Me, I see that he publishes videos where he shows the fighters as heroes. He says these videos fuel his faith. He says he was vaccinated against yellow fever to go on a spiritual retreat in Mali. It is not a trivial destination. One of his friends says he is a diehard, ready to fall as a martyr. Without forgetting the writings found at his home, the attempts to buy a weapon… He is a lone and dangerous wolf.”
And the magistrate continued: “In a country like ours and a department like Yvelines, hard hit by terrorism (Magnanville in 2016, Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in 2020 and Rambouillet in 2021), it is not understandable, nor acceptable.”
In this context, the prosecution pronounces heavy requisitions, up to 7 years of detention, a socio-judicial follow-up for 10 years, a ban on going to the Yvelines for 10 years and to hold a weapon for the same period.
For his last words of defense, Mézian puts it in his own words.
“Pragmatism would like me to be released because the reintegration is there. The radicalism with which you characterize me is something that stabilizes me, which generates satisfaction. I do this with good intentions. I have faith in the Lord you have denied. But I want the best for people like you. I call people to the truth for their good. I am not someone who wants to shed blood.”
The sentence was pronounced, following to the letter the requests of the public prosecutor.
Without a word, Mézian was handcuffed and taken back to jail.
He has ten days to appeal the decision.
His long, light brown hair falls over his black polo shirt. Often, he tweaks his little goatee with his fingers. In the box of the Versailles judicial court, this Friday August 25, 2023, Mézian has more the look of a surfer than a terrorist.
And yet, this 25-year-old resident of Noisy-le-Roi (Yvelines) must be tried for justifying an act of terrorism and an attempt to acquire a handgun. According to the investigation, he even planned to carry out “a project.”
Mézian, who converted to Islam at a young age, was targeted by the Versailles criminal investigation department following his postings on Snapchat and Tik Tok. Videos in which he praises jihad and takes very extreme positions. In them, he praises the values of Sharia law as “a necessity.” In them, he describes his idea of an infidel, “a human being who rejects the truth.”
In Noisy-le-Roi, a community of 7,600 inhabitants, Mézian is no stranger. He walks around in a djellaba. He also attracts young people to him. In exchange for sweets or money, he teaches them prayers and the codes of Islam. In the woods, he confirms to them that they will be “the next generation of fighters.”
On July 11, he goes on the Darknet, where he tries to buy his first handgun, a Colt 45. He gets scammed out of 500 euros. He returned there quickly, on July 15, to acquire another, a 7.65 pistol.” Must wait. There was “a lot of demand during the riots,” his contact tells him.
At the same time, the investigators learn from his former fellow prisoner from Condé-sur-Sarthe (Orne – dep. 61) that he has already spoken of a criminal “project.” The man has never hidden his radicalism, which has become more powerful after seven years in prison. Seven years for gang rape committed when he was a minor.
He went through the Radicalization Support District (QPR). He read a lot of history, astrophysics and religious books.
The profile of the man is disturbing. The criminal brigade of the judicial police of Versailles decides to arrest him. Especially since Mézian spoke of a date: July 24. But not of a place. Because, according to him, “it is a key date when the Freemasons were against the armies of the Prophet.”
Before being remanded in custody, he wrote a 6-page letter to the judge. The fine, tight, slanted writing is very calligraphic. It begins with a large drop cap.
In his sentences, he explains his vision of “radicality which is not dangerousness. It allows me to channel myself. He also explains that jihad is a purification and that “the only master I serve is God and his messenger.”
Proselytism? “I don’t do more than that. God called me to bring people to him.”
Faced with his judges, Mézian contests any planned attack. He confirms his withdrawal and a “certain confinement,” after his passage in QPR, where he could be fully searched seven times an hour.
“When I was released, I felt confused, attacked from the outside, by the influx of information.”
To the accusations of an attack, he responds with the madness of his informer. “Me, I just want to make my life, to work. There, I am a temporary worker on a construction site at the King’s Stables, in Versailles.”
For the public prosecutor, all this takes on a more than unpleasant hue.
“The explanations he gives, he is the only one to understand them. Me, I see that he publishes videos where he shows the fighters as heroes. He says these videos fuel his faith. He says he was vaccinated against yellow fever to go on a spiritual retreat in Mali. It is not a trivial destination. One of his friends says he is a diehard, ready to fall as a martyr. Without forgetting the writings found at his home, the attempts to buy a weapon… He is a lone and dangerous wolf.”
And the magistrate continued: “In a country like ours and a department like Yvelines, hard hit by terrorism (Magnanville in 2016, Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in 2020 and Rambouillet in 2021), it is not understandable, nor acceptable.”
In this context, the prosecution pronounces heavy requisitions, up to 7 years of detention, a socio-judicial follow-up for 10 years, a ban on going to the Yvelines for 10 years and to hold a weapon for the same period.
For his last words of defense, Mézian puts it in his own words.
“Pragmatism would like me to be released because the reintegration is there. The radicalism with which you characterize me is something that stabilizes me, which generates satisfaction. I do this with good intentions. I have faith in the Lord you have denied. But I want the best for people like you. I call people to the truth for their good. I am not someone who wants to shed blood.”
The sentence was pronounced, following to the letter the requests of the public prosecutor.
Without a word, Mézian was handcuffed and taken back to jail.
He has ten days to appeal the decision.
