Kalashnikovs or cannabis? What was Paris terror suspect trying to buy in Rotterdam?

On Thursday, the accused Ali El Haddad Asufi was questioned by the special criminal court about his possible involvement in helping the November 2015 Paris killers to obtain the kalashnikov machine guns used in the attacks. Asufi admits that he made two trips to Holland in October 2015, but says he went to buy drugs, not weapons. 

Security forces patrol outside the temporary courtroom set up for the trial of the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks' defendants at the Palais de Justice of Paris - Paris' courthouse on the opening days of the proceedings on September 8, 2021. - The biggest trial in France's modern legal history begins on September 8, 2021 over the November 2015 attacks on Paris that saw 130 people killed at bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall. The suicide bombing and gun assault by three teams of jihadists, planned from Syria and later claimed by the Islamic State group, was France's worst post-war atrocity. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP) AFP - ALAIN JOCARD

Ali El Haddad Asufi is not very convincing. Neither is the evidence against him.

"I never bought a kalashnikov in my life," he assured the Paris court on Thursday.

"You are not accused of buying anything," the court president, Jean-Louis Périès reminded him. "You are suspected of having helped in the search for weapons."

If found guilty, Ali El Haddad Asufi risks 20 years in jail.  He is 37 years old.

Kalashnikov machine guns

The Belgian police investigation has never identified the source of the kalashnikov machine guns used by the café terrace and Bataclan killers on the night of 13 November 2015.

Earlier this week, a Dutch witness, supposed to be an "international arms dealer" laughed at the reputation accorded him by the investigators. His police record mentions a brawl in a bar, 30 years ago. He once owned a starting pistol.

He never met Ali El Haddad Asufi, had to look him up on Google to find out who he was. Asufi didn't know the witness either.

The "arms dealer's" evidence before the Paris court lasted 20 minutes, and that includes the time involved in translating between Dutch and French.

Ali El Haddad Asufi admits to a long-term friendship with Mohamed Bakkali and Yassine Atar, two of the co-accused in this trial. He was also friendly with Ibrahim El Bakraoui, suspected of helping to organise the Paris massacres, and who blew himself up in the 2016 terrorist attack at Zaventem airport near Brussels.

Of Ibrahim El Bakraoui, the witness memorably remarked that, given his friend's background, "he hardly needed me to help him find weapons". Bakraoui was arrested in 2010 after firing a kalashnikov at police officers during a failed bank robbery.

Trips to Holland

Ali El Haddad Asufi admits having made two trips to Holland in October 2015.

On 7 October he travelled to Amsterdam:  "I don't think I had any particular reason," he said.

The 28 October trip to Rotterdam "was probably for drugs".

Asufi was weak on details. The quantities of cannabis involved, the price, even the identity of the friend who accompanied him, all remain vague.

Questioned on his forgetfulness by one of his own defence lawyers, the accused had a well-rehearsed response: "Of course I don't remember. We're talking about things that happened seven years ago. Things that were completely ordinary."

And the question of the "Clios", the codename for the object of the Rotterdam trip, evoked earlier this week, came up again. The "Clios" might have been prostitutes or weapons. They certainly were not the Renault cars of the same name.

The defence had a suggestion. "Clio", the court was told, is a phonetic anagram for "kilo", the basic unit in drug transactions.

The trial continues.