Trial started after terrorist attack on Christmas market in Strasbourg Looking for an apartment for a year: “We have no more claims. We’ll take it all!”

More than five years after the terrorist attack on the Christmas market in Strasbourg, Alsace, the trial of four of the perpetrator’s alleged assistants began before a jury court in Paris on Thursday.

The attack killed five people and injured eleven others. The defendants are said to have assisted in the purchase of weapons. The trial with dozens of co-plaintiffs takes place under strict security measures.

The Islamist Chérif Chekatt (29) attacked people with a firearm and a large knife in the pre-Christmas crowds in alleys and squares on the evening of December 11, 2018. He initially managed to escape in a taxi. Two days later, after a major manhunt in the French-German border area, he was killed in a shootout with officers in the Neudorf district of Strasbourg.

The terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) later claimed responsibility for the attack. Chekatt had pledged his loyalty to IS in a video. The recording was found on a USB stick in his apartment. Chekatt was known to the authorities as an Islamist threat.

The defendants, who like the attacker have a petty criminal background and are all French, risk long prison sentences. The main suspect is a friend of the perpetrator who is said to have helped him buy weapons for a long time. The 42-year-old rapper from Strasbourg says he thought the perpetrator was a simple criminal and knew nothing about his attack plans. At the start of the trial, the bald man in a white shirt was the only suspect who had to sit in a specially secured room behind bulletproof glass.

Also charged are two 37- and 39-year-old brothers from Sélestat and another 34-year-old man from Haagnau, who allegedly arranged and arranged the purchase of the murder weapon on the day of the attack. From the prosecutor’s perspective, they knew nothing about the attack plans. These three suspects are under judicial supervision, but have been in custody for an extended period of time. (yam/sda/dpa)