Wigs, DNA and a sewing machine: the crucial evidence the Paris killers left behind

After an unscheduled two-week break provoked by cases of Covid-19 among the 14 accused, the Paris terror trial resumed on Tuesday with Belgian police evidence on the preliminary planning for the attacks - the efforts by the terrorists and their suspected associates to find hide-outs, vehicles, weapons and false identity papers. 

Sketch of the courtroom where the Paris attacks trial is taking place. © BENOIT PEYRUCQ/AFP

On Tuesday, the Special Criminal Court in Paris, where 20 men are being tried for their alleged involvement in the November 2015 attacks which cost 131 people their lives, heard testimony from a police investigator.

The facts presented were based on mobile phone records, the geolocalisation of rented cars, physical searches of premises, eye-witness interviews, DNA samples, and fingerprints.

Technical, repetitive evidence

The evidence was detailed, technical and repetitive. The unidentified police officer spoke by videolink from the office of the Belgian Attorney-General in Brussels. He was very thorough.

We learned, for example, that wigs and a pair of glasses discovered during a search of the apartment of Ahmed Dahmani, one of the accused, appear to have been used to disguise some of the suspects for the photos which feature on their false ID cards.

In subsequent investigations, it became clear that Dahmani's DNA could be linked to that of Salah Abdeslam and of the El Bakraoui brothers, terrorists who died in suicide explosions in Brussels in 2016.

In the late summer of 2015, Ahmed Dahmani and his co-accused Mohamed Bakkali contacted a number of estate agents in an effort to rent houses and apartments, some in Belgium, others in northern France.

Bakkali also rented several cars, including the black Seat Léon which would subsequently be used by the terrace attackers on the night of 13 November 2015.

In an apartment in the Schaerbeek suburb of Brussels, police found the DNA of four of the accused - Mohamed Abrini, Ali Oulkadi, Salah Abdeslam and Osama Krayem -  as well as DNA traces of dead terrorist attackers. Police experts also confirmed that traces of the home-made explosive used by the attackers were found in the same apartment.

Weighing scales, a pliers, an electric sewing machine and a rough sketch of an explosive belt were among the objects left behind by the occupants.

DNA traces of another of the accused, Sofien Ayari, were found at a second address, but there was no evidence that explosives were ever handled there.

The owner of an islamic bookshop near a third address informed the police that Bilal Hadfi, one of the Stade de France suicide bombers, had made three visits to the shop. He was searching for a book containing a description of Paradise.

The trial continues.