Strasbourg: three years later, elected officials and victims commemorate the attack on the Christmas market
December 11, 2021
Victims, families and elected officials commemorated Saturday in Strasbourg, in the presence of Prime Minister Jean Castex, the attack on the Christmas market which left 5 dead on December 11, 2018 and many injured.
“Three years have passed, we need a lot of strength and courage after the attack to overcome the trauma,” said Martine Winterberger, injured in the attack, reading a text written collectively by the victims and their families, in introduction of this ceremony. closed to the public.
“Against hatred, we have chosen life, peace, hope, fraternity and sharing. We still have to find the path to resilience in order to one day be able to close “the trauma,” she added.
Prime Minister Jean Castex and the environmentalist mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, then placed white roses around the commemorative stele erected after the attack.
They were imitated by the Alsatian minister Brigitte Klinkert and the prefect of Bas-Rhin Josiane Chevalier, as well as by the victims injured in the attack, present in large numbers, and members of their families.
The ceremony ended with a minute of silence, without a word from elected officials or the Prime Minister. The latter then quickly left the site of the ceremony to go and inaugurate the new Strasbourg bypass motorway.
“It was important that there be this ceremony, in the presence of the Prime Minister, because the Strasbourg attack was not the subject of national homage, unlike those in Paris or Nice,” said Mostafa Salhane, president of the Association Victimes Attentats, told AFP. (AVA), who had been taken hostage by the terrorist.
In total, 78 people are considered to be victims of the Strasbourg attack, including relatives of the five deceased, injured victims and shocked people.
On December 11, 2018, shortly before 8:00 p.m., Chérif Chekatt, a 29-year-old repeat offender and registered S for Islamist radicalization, entered, armed with an old revolver and a knife, in the historic center of Strasbourg, where the traditional Christmas market.
He had randomly killed five men while walking in the streets and injured ten others.
Managing to escape in a taxi, after being wounded by soldiers, he was killed by the police 48 hours later in a district in the south of Strasbourg where he had grown up. A video of allegiance to the Islamic State group was then found on a USB stick belonging to him.
On the criminal level, five people are indicted, suspected of being linked to the supply of various weapons in the possession of the killer. A trial could take place in 2023, according to the AVA.
11/12/2021 11:34:34 – Strasbourg (AFP) – © 2021 AFP