The trial of those charged with the Paris murders in January 2015 focused this week on the Hypercacher shooting, in which four men were killed.

Eric Cohen felt helpless as he sat in the courtroom. His son, 21-year-old Yohan, was one of the four men murdered by Amedy Coulibaly at the grocery store. As he listened to the former head of anti-terrorist forces describe the attack, including his son’s ruthless killing, he looked puzzled at the eleven accused, tried for assisting Coulibaly in the preparation of the attacks, as well as the brothers who attacked the Charlie Hebdo newspaper.

“This is just horrible. Look at them, they’re a bunch of friends laughing. They seem so confident, so unfazed by this trial,” Mr Cohen told the JC on Monday during a break. Coulibaly filmed his attack but the court decided not to show his footage, judging that was propaganda. It also decided not to show CCTV footage from the store’s dozen security cameras to spare the families, showing instead stills extracted from the videos. Christian Deau, the former head of France’s anti-terrorist services who has seen and heard all the videos, described the attack fact by fact. “On these three images, Coulibaly is seen approaching the store,” Mr Deau told the court. “Right outside the store he pulls out his Kalashnikov-type weapon. On camera number two, you can see the store’s employee Yohan Cohen moving backwards as Coulibaly enters. Coulibaly shoots him and Mr Cohen collapses into the supermarket trolleys. He shoots him again and walks deeper into the store.

“Three people manage to escape, others move to hide in the basement. A man called François-Michel Saada walks in. An employee tries to stop him but his pace is too quick. By the time he understands what is happening and tries to flee, Coulibaly shot him in the back,” said Deau over images of Mr Saada lying on the floor. 

Then came the turn of Philippe Braham. The judge read out a transcription of their conversation: Coulibaly asked him “What’s your name?” He answered “Philippe”. “Philippe what?” When the man answered “Philippe Braham”, Coulibaly shot him dead in one of many instances when the gunman is seen to have acted out of pure antisemitism.
Yoav Hattab, aged 21, was killed as a hero. The Tunisian man seized one of Coulibaly’s Kalashnikovs and tried to shoot him but the weapon jammed and the terrorist shot him dead and kicked him in the head.

This week has been tough for the prosecution. Defence lawyers asked the investigator to confirm that the real culprits were not in the room. “Claude Hermant is not here, and yet he is the one who bought the weapons...Can you confirm he is an informer for several security agencies, including the police?” said one defence lawyer.

“I believe he has cooperated with security forces,” responded Deau.

“This is so infuriating,” Eric Cohen told the JC. “This is such a dirty defence strategy. I’m disgusted by their methods.” 

Asked what he thought about the fact the man who bought the weapons was not in court, the grieving father replied: “That too is infuriating.”