- Are you filming? - No, I take my pictures. This 23-year-old young man is Mohamed Merah a few days before the murders. In a month, he will cowardly murder seven people, including three children. On February 10, 2012, he was filmed by a friend in the mountains. The three friends left Toulouse and their city to come and ski in this Jura resort. Mohamed is a pretty good skier. Accustomed since childhood to spend holidays in winter sports. - It's there, over all the bumps. In these images, the young man seems happy and relaxed. - It's okay, you made up for it anyway. A young man smiling and full of life, nothing lets predict that he will be at the origin of a national drama. In 30 days, however, Mohamed Merah will coldly kill three soldiers, a father and three children. March 2012, France is in shock, terrified by the killings committed by Mohamed Merah. In the middle of the presidential campaign, the French discover with amazement that the child-killing monster is a young man from the suburbs barely 23 years old. But who is he really? And how did he come to kill seven people in cold blood? Our investigation traces the unlikely story of this suburban kid who became public enemy number one in the name of radical Islam. From Toulouse, where he has troubled links with the police , to Pakistan, where he turns to fanaticism, our investigations show another face of Mohamed Merah, often against the official versions. - How could he commit such horrors? How could he behave so much like a monster? Mohamed Merah filmed all his murders. These videos are unbroadcast. We have reconstructed each crime as faithfully as possible. It all started in Toulouse with the murder of a soldier. Chief Marshal Imad Ibn Ziaten. That afternoon, the parachutist is a little ahead. He is waiting for a buyer interested in his motorcycle. His Suzuki Bandit has been on sale for a few weeks on the Internet. And to prove that she is well maintained, Imad specified on the announcement: "I am a soldier". - He wrote that he was a soldier. If he hadn't, he would still be here. He died because he was a soldier. The two men met in the parking lot of this disused gymnasium, near the Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse. The buyer finally arrives. - At one point, an arriving man dressed in black with a black helmet on a black scooter approaches. Barely got off his scooter, the man in black suddenly turns to Imad and points the soldier's face with a pistol. - Apparently he asked him if he was military, my son said: "yes, so what?"
He said, "I'm going to kill you". The man seems to hesitate. But faced with the soldier's refusal to kneel, he shoots him a first bullet in the head. Then a second as he lies on the ground. The stranger takes the time to pick up a casing and runs away at full speed, leaving Imad's body lifeless. The police do not know it yet, but it is the first murder of a long list. A walker who witnessed the murder recounts the scene to investigators. For them, the crime is linked to drug trafficking. - The killer who kills someone coldly with his weapon twice, who finishes him on the ground, we say to ourselves that it is a settling of scores given the modus operandi. So we're going to do a little investigation on the entourage. - He said to me: "Madam, your son, does he have a brother who is jealous and who could kill him? Does your son have a money problem, was he tampering with something?". The investigation is moving towards a banal settling of scores. The case does not even go back to the Minister of the Interior at the time. - Initially, when there is a first assassination of a soldier in Toulouse, it is an assassination and consequently, it is an ordinary investigation which is set up. An ordinary investigation which will nevertheless take on a whole new dimension a few days later. Four days after the death of Ibn Ziaten, the police still do not have the slightest clue. This is a new drama that will advance the investigation. It takes place in Montauban, a few kilometers from Toulouse. The city is home to the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment. Red berets are everywhere in the streets. That day, the three friends, Abel Chennouf, Mohamed Legouad and Loïc Liber withdraw money from the ATM. At no time do they pay attention to the man in black who has just parked his scooter behind them. The helmeted man approaches the soldiers with a determined step. He is armed. He coldly kills the first two paratroopers with a bullet in the back of the neck. And shoot the third who tries to escape. In a rush, the man knocks one of his chargers to the ground. He does not pick it up, but he goes to retrieve, again, the casings scattered on the ground. Loïc Liber is now a paraplegic. Mohamed Legouad and Abel Chennouf, they died instantly. This time, the investigators have many elements to try to identify the killer. Starting with CCTV. The scene was entirely filmed by the cameras of the ATM and what it shows is very instructive. - A man of 1m80, helmet, of which we have no description at the level of the face, thin, cold, determined and who leaves quickly once the crime is committed. CCTV also identifies the model of the scooter, a black T-Max. She also reveals to the investigators a detail that sends shivers down their spines. The man is equipped with a camera that he placed on his chest. The killer films all of his murders as close as possible to his victims. City cameras then took over and filmed the scooter killer as he fled. We discover the man raising his weapon to the sky as a sign of victory. On the crime scene, it is the charger forgotten by the killer who will speak. The seven bullets it contained were sent for expertise to the laboratory of the scientific police in Toulouse. It is the same weapon that killed in Toulouse and Montauban. - When there was this aggression against other paratroopers in Montauban, it was on the 15th, it took another turn. A race against time then begins because the killer of paratroopers can kill again at any time. The case is now taken very seriously at the highest peak in the state, and a lead is then very quickly privileged. - All the victims are soldiers of North African origin. And immediately comes to the mind of the investigators and the magistrates who oversee them, the impression that, perhaps, we must follow a far- right track. Just two days after the Montauban massacre, a corporal close to the far-right movement is in police custody. He's an ideal suspect. He is passionate about motorcycles and a sniper in a barracks near Montauban. But his schedule will exculpate him. Are also heard, owners of Scooter T-Max and Colt 45 in the region of Toulouse. But all these hearings lead nowhere. It is computer research that will bring up the name of the Merahs for the first time in the procedure. Investigators went back to the online announcement of the first soldier killed. For them, the killer had necessarily consulted him in order to choose his first victim. Their hypothesis? His goal was to kill a soldier. He would therefore have typed in two key words, motorcycle and military. Thousands of computer data are analyzed. And after two days of investigation, the judicial police draw up a list of suspects. - Nine people had viewed Mr. Ziaten's ad. There were three who were in Toulouse and among them were Zoulikha Aziri, Abdelkader's mother, and Mohamed Merah, both of whom were reported as militant Islamists. This list of suspects published in the press was established on March 17, 2012. It clearly shows that a week before the murder, Ms. Aziri's computer connected twice to the soldier's announcement. Aziri is the name of the mother of Mohamed and Abdelkader Merah. His two sons reportedly used his internet connection. They are on file as radical Islamists and they have been monitored for years by the intelligence services, as these confidential notes in our possession prove. Why didn't the police arrest them immediately? For many specialists, it is a huge failure. Merah could have been neutralized long before he committed any further killings. - One Sunday evening, it appears in the radars, let's say. We go get him, and then that's it. We need to pick him up, take him into custody and check it out. We have consistent clues that show that this individual, in addition, he has a track record, he has a file behind him. We'll get him, we don't ask questions if you want. - You know, it's always easy to redo history afterwards. It was also necessary to cross-check with the information of the PJ, it is not enough to have suspicions. Fortunately, in France, people are only questioned on facts, on certainties. However, according to our information, Bernard Squarcini, then head of intelligence, recommended him to challenge the Merah from March 18, the day before the massacre of the Jewish school. But the judicial police would not have followed him, focused on the trail of the extreme right. - This subject is unthinkable. There are children who have been killed. Me it eats me. Soldiers are children. They could be my kids if you want. There is a terrible miss. A miss that will be expensive. The Jewish school shooting will take place the next morning. - Good evening to all, distraught France. Special edition on this shooting in a Jewish school in Toulouse. A helmeted man coldly killed four people, including three young children. The emotion is immense. The election campaign is put on hold. Who is this man still on the run? Why these crimes? The modus operandi is the same as for the murders of the paratroopers. The investigators are convinced, the killer has just struck again in this Jewish school. And the unbearable scene was completely filmed by surveillance cameras. It's 7:55 a.m. Most of the students are already in the school. On the sidewalk, Jonathan Sandler, a teacher from the school, is with his two sons. A man with a white helmet arrives on a white T-Max scooter, this time. No one notices his submachine gun slung over his shoulder. Pierre Lasry is the father of a student who was able to escape the killer. He viewed the CCTV tapes. - We actually see a guy on his scooter who is waiting, who is there, who is not moving. Afterwards, it degenerates. The tape is absolutely unsustainable. He just pulled out a gun and shot the three or four people who were there. The man on the scooter fires a first burst, but his weapon jams. He then seizes a Colt 45 and will commit an act of immense cowardice by coldly killing the father and his five-year-old son. - We feel someone who is completely at ease in this action. He is completely comfortable. He is like a tennis player who plays tennis well. He is a killer who kills well. The assassin pursues the children in the school. The height of horror is reached when he kills Gabriel, four years old, and little Myriam with a bullet to the head. - I remember these terrifying images that I saw on which we see Merah bend down to put herself at the height of the temple of a toddler. It is something absolutely unsustainable. - It's still something monstrous. A real monster came that morning. The assassin killed four people and injured one , and this time he killed Jewish children. Myriam Monsonego, seven years old, Arié Sandler, five years old, Gabriel Sandler, four years old and their father, Jonathan Sandler, 30 years old. The case becomes a national tragedy. The presidential campaign suddenly freezes and the same day, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande make the emergency trip to Toulouse. - These are images that we had seen in other countries and that we had never seen in ours. The whole national community is overwhelmed and is at your side. - It is not a school, Jews, a city that have been affected, it is the whole of France. Exceptional means are then deployed to stop the bloody race of the killer. 200 investigators are mobilized throughout France. The Raid intervention group also joins Toulouse. Internal intelligence is now jointly seized of the case. The local counterintelligence police watch the video surveillance. They feel like they know the killer. - The intelligence agents are also on the spot and, by viewing the videos of the school, think they recognize Mohamed Merah in relation to his pace, his gait, the way he stands, the way he drives the scooter. Mohamed Merah, a young man from Toulouse whom the local intelligence services know well. In 2011, they monitored him for months because of his close ties with Islamist circles. At 23, the young man, from a sensitive city, is also known to the police for a dozen acts of delinquency. - It was stones. It's acts of violence against a social worker. It's purse snatching, purse theft at gunpoint, I believe. We see it in stolen cars, on stolen scooters. He parades around the neighborhood. He is still quite well known at this level. But his older brother Abdelkader makes a more credible suspect for investigators. - So we learn about Abdelkader Merah that he is a radical Islamist, that he practices a fundamentalist, Salafist Islam, that his wife is entirely veiled, that he went to Egypt to learn Arabic, religious education. Abdelkader or Mohamed, one of the two, is he the scooter killer? The investigators will have the heart net the day after the massacre of the Jewish school. For several days, the police have been touring dealerships selling T-Max scooters of the same model as the one used in the murders. In this store, a salesman entrusts them. That a young T-Max owner came to ask him funny questions. - This person came forward to find out how you could remove a tracker from a Yamaha T-Max. This is the system that allows the vehicle to be located when it is stolen. This man, the seller, remembers it. His name is Merah, but he doesn't know which brother it is. One of the Merah therefore owns a T-Max scooter. Without forgetting the connection of the computer of the mother to the announcement of the soldier. The link with the Merah family becomes obvious. The track of the far right is then abandoned. - All the police services which were on the alert put surveillance in place on the various homes, whether on brother Abdelkader or on rue du Sergent Vigné in Toulouse for Mohamed Merah? The police therefore begin a hideout in front of Abdelkader's accommodation, in Auterive, 40 kilometers from Toulouse. He moved here, in this pavilion, a few months ago with his wife. In Toulouse, a second team tries to locate Mohamed at his last known address, 17 rue du Sergent Vigné. A policeman in EDF agent uniform even discreetly places a camera in front of his home. She will record all comings and goings. The young man occupies a two-room apartment in this quiet district of Toulouse. The apartment is located on the first floor. Behind the closed shutters, the police officers in hiding do not notice any sign of life. But the young man may be at home. He is used to staying cloistered for days on end playing video games. This Monday, March 19, in any case, the police do not know if he is in his apartment. They will have to wait until the next day to finally see it. But who is Mohamed Merah really? Who was Mohammad Merah? Her mother, Zoulikha, thinks she knows better than anyone. Almost a year after the events, she decides to speak publicly for the first time. Mohammed's mother now lives in this studio, far from Toulouse and her family. And she wants to say what she knows about her son and his family. - Do you understand why he did all this? - I do not understand. - What are you saying to yourself in your head? What happened? - I don't know, I don't know. I did not understand anything. He was handsome, he was nice. Suddenly he changed. Me, I do not know. I don't know why it became like this. He died and he took many people with him. This photo published in the press is that of Mohamed, who died after the Raid attack. Zoulikha often looks at her crying for her son, but also for these victims. - I cry for him, for the others. I'm not just crying for my son. I cry for the others, the victims. He never talked to me about mujahideen, he never talked to me about jihad, he never talked to me about stuff like that. That's why I didn't believe it. I didn't believe Mohamed was like that. Afterwards, I started digging around in my head, in the past, I couldn't find anything. His son's past is first and foremost a troubled childhood. In 1981, Mohamed's parents, both from Algeria, moved to France in a low-rent housing near Toulouse. Together they have five children, two girls and three boys. Mohamed is the youngest. The child was only five years old when his mother filed for divorce. Zoulikha finds herself alone to raise her five children. She does not work and lives with only 400 euros in allowances. Zoulikha quickly loses all authority over her children. - At that time, I was young. I couldn't raise my children. It was hard for me. You need a man at home. The father was no longer there. We don't get there that way. For Alain Penin, who appraised Mohamed, his lack of benchmarks had serious consequences on his development. - He lacks a father present who names the law, who enforces it and above all who ensures the psychological security of the mother because the mother is totally helpless at that time, especially since the siblings are relatively numerous and the financial means are not on schedule. In 1997, Mohamed was only nine years old when the alert was given. A report from the social services then describes a harmful family situation for the child. Mohamed comes home from school at the time he wants, sits down to eat if he wants and goes to bed the same way. The child is in danger for lack of a minimum educational framework. At the age of nine, Mohamed was separated from his mother and placed in a home. - He didn't want to go to the hostel, he didn't want to stay there. He was crying. He was typing. He said "Mom, please don't leave me alone". Sometimes I brought him. He ran behind me to the fence. Once he was crying and so was I. He was crying. "Mom! Don't leave me alone!". So I cried, got off, took the bus and left. He suffered a lot. Now I think it's my fault he turned out like this. Because I divorced her father. I regret it a lot. Mohamed grew up, always tossed from home to home. Over the years, educators describe an intelligent and responsive young man. But become uncontrollable, as in this report of 2002. The teenager was then fourteen years old. - "He insults, insults the girls. Every day, we have to intervene for a degradation, theft, a conflict, an aggression of which Mohamed is the author. He refuses the authority of the adults as much as he claims their affection". As for the paternal authority, it is pulverized, the day or his father is condemned to four years of prison for trafficking. Fourteen is also the age when Mohamed has his first outbursts of violence. At this time, he brutally assaults a social worker who was trying to console him. Souad Merah is Mohamed's older sister. Usually, her veil does not hide her face. She hides him from our camera to protect his anonymity. A few months ago, her remarks aroused indignation when, filmed on a hidden camera by her brother Abdelghani, she told him. "Mohamed defended himself well. I'm proud. He defended himself until the end". Souad had then publicly condemned the murders committed by his brother and the investigation opened for apology for terrorism had finally been dismissed . Today, no charge weighs on her concerning the killings. She agrees to tell us about her brother and his terrible drift. - He lacked affection. He didn't have what we had, which is to say this family life. Both parents, four children together. As soon as we didn't do what he wanted, he got angry and slammed the doors. When we tried to talk to him, when we tried to explain certain things to him, he said "Go ahead, talk, but know that in the end I will only do what I have decided". Very early, his mother had worried about the very disturbed personality of her son. - From the age of six, he said to me "Mom, I have a man in my head who talks to me". We laughed. Then he got angry. he said to me: "I am telling the truth and you are laughing!" I said to him: "Mohamed, what is it? What are they saying?" He told me: "I have a second person in my head". As a teenager, Mohamed no longer talks about the man in his head. He now spends his days in the Toulouse city of Izards. This is the neighborhood of his childhood. The whole family lived in this house, near the soccer field. - Every day, with the young people of the Izards, in the buildings, he watched, he discussed with the young people there. Little by little, he falls into the cycle of petty crime. Fights, vandalism, attacks. Often, the young man parades through the city at the wheel of sometimes stolen cars or scooters. In this clip, made by the young people of the neighborhood, we see Mohamed on this scooter or on this quad taking all the risks to impress his friends. - He likes to show that he is up to it, that he is as good as the others and even stronger than the others. I think he wants to be taken seriously. And his problem is that he's a bit weak, not very strong. In violent relationships, he is not so likely to impose himself. He must look like someone who can be noticed and who is attractive. At the age of sixteen, the young man seemed to calm down a bit and began a bodywork CAP. During an internship with various employers, he turned out to be an apprentice with a bright future. - He did a bodybuilder's CAP which he did not validate. But on the other hand, all his bosses agree that he is a serious boy who works well, etc. - His passion was automobiles, bodywork. He was seen as extremely gifted, - But he didn't follow through. He didn't really fit in. It's particular. And then afterwards, he switched to something else. This other thing is delinquency. Between sixteen and 19 years old, the apprentice coachbuilder during the day, participates in burglaries and steals cars at night in Toulouse. The young Mohamed follows the wrong slope. But who imagines that a few years later he will become a killer hunted down by all the police in France? Four years later, we find Mohamed. He is now 23 years old. He ignores it, but his building has been under surveillance since the day before because he is suspected of being the author of the killings. That morning, the police in hiding will eventually see him. A helicopter flies over the neighborhood at low altitude. Intrigued by this din, Merah finally puts his nose outside. - Merah was accommodated, if I may say so, on Tuesday, March 20. In the early morning of Tuesday, it opened its shutters, so there was certainty. Claude Guéant then took part in a crisis unit in Toulouse. In the greatest secrecy, it is decided that the Raid will challenge the two Merah brothers in the night, at 3:30 am. - The calculation had been made that, at a time when they were probably sleeping, substantially before the moment of the prayer, which they were undoubtedly going to do, it was the opportune moment. While waiting for nightfall in front of Mohamed's, surveillance is in place. Many police are hovering around his building and criss-crossing the neighborhood. Everything is ready to challenge him. However, despite this exceptional device, Mohamed will manage to leave his home, crisscross Toulouse for 6 hours and return to his apartment as if nothing had happened, without the police noticing. Here is his journey, astonishing, step by step. First stop at 7:30 p.m. He first visits his friend Touria. She does not suspect for a second that he has just killed seven people, including three children. - He goes that way. I open the door for him. The children come downstairs and say hello to him. I show him his room. I tell him that this will be his bathroom. - He asked you to take him in? - Yes, he asked me on Saturday when I saw him. He said to me: "Can you accommodate me, do me a favor?" There was no problem. I'm not one to ask questions. If I'm needed, I open the door and I open my heart with great pleasure in fact. Mohamed is certainly looking for a hideout to escape the hunt of the police, but he shows no signs of nervousness in Touria. - I saw him smiling. Me now, with hindsight, because at the time... - He was that calm? - He was really laid back. Adorable. Afterwards, he said to me, "I'm going to buy a pizza, do you want something?" He put his things in the room where he was to sleep. Mohamed leaves two bags in the room. Inside, the police will discover him later, clean clothes, a small camera and, on this memory card, the images of the killings that he himself filmed. The sports bag also contains a handwritten letter from Mohamed, obviously his will. - This is the message of a servant of Allah and a soldier of Al-Qaida. Oh you French people! We are fighting you, as you are fighting my brothers in Afghanistan. The day of our attacks was the happiest moment of my life. Two outcomes are available to me: either prison with my head held high, or death with a big smile. Mohamed leaves the apartment at 9:30 p.m. Touria will never see him again. In less than six hours, he will be holed up at home facing the raid. The young girl still does not understand how her friend could come to commit such acts. - He was a good guy. It's a shame, he messed up. Leaving Touria's, Mohamed quietly continues his journey in Toulouse while the police crisscross his building, believing him to still be at home. Merah now plans to publicize her murders. First, he will post the video of these massacres to the Al Jazeera channel. He hopes that she will broadcast extracts from these killings. Then around midnight, he stops at a booth and manages to reach an editor-in-chief at France24. Calmly, he claims all the incidents, he says, in Toulouse and Montauban. - He was very consistent, very careful, very determined to get his point across. He was someone who wanted to be heard, very convinced that what he did was necessary for the dignity of Muslims. Mohamed hangs up after fourteen minutes of conversation. Then he returns to his apartment around 1am. The numerous policemen hiding in front of his building had not seen him leave. Nor will they see him return home. Even today, many questions remain about Merah's sleight of hand. How was the most wanted man in France able to escape police vigilance for nearly 6 hours? - Do you know how Merah managed to escape police surveillance? - Quite honestly, this is a point which, for me, remained completely nebulous. There is indeed a suspicion of leaving his apartment. I never got an explanation for that. - There were some errors probably? - I don't know, I don't know. - Absolutely not? - No I do not know. To try to understand, we go a year later to the residence, rue du Sergent Vigné, where Mohamed Merah lived. Mr. and Mrs. Lopez were already the guardians of the residence at the material time . They too still do not understand how the many police officers present on the spot missed Merah that evening. - Mohamed Merah's apartment. Where did the assaults take place? - Where would he have gone then? - We think he would have been there. For the goalkeeper, it's obvious. Mohamed Merah simply went through the basement. - He went through the bike garage. The bicycle garage, the exit of which overlooks the back of the building. On leaving his apartment, the young man on his guard would therefore not have taken the main exit at the front of the building, the one that the police watched and filmed continuously. - So he went out that way. - Why didn't they see him? - Did they want to see him? Didn't they want to see it? What had they planned? - Were they back there? Me, I do not know. Me, I'll be in their place, when I stand in front of an entrance to watch someone, I first go around the building to see what the exits are. He cannot leave anywhere but through the main entrance. - But over there, he could. If the building was surrounded, he couldn't get out. This large white door would therefore be the exit taken by Merah that evening. Past this gate, the course is open and there are no crowds in its very wide streets. A single man cannot go unnoticed. - Apparently there's been a flaw in the monitoring device. It's really controversial right now. Apparently he would have passed from behind and it was not guarded. So why this incredible failure? The head of Toulouse intelligence did not wish to provide us with explanations. This night of March 21, in any case, Merah is quietly at home after his escapade in Toulouse. It is already 1am, but he conscientiously performs his evening prayer. A habit acquired a few years ago during his stay in prison. Four years earlier, Mohamed was then 19 years old. At that time, he was still following his coachbuilder CAP, but had not stopped his nonsense. On December 18, 2007, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for assaulting and stealing from an old lady, his first incarceration. An earthquake in the life of the young man. Alain Penin then carried out his psychological expertise at the Seysses remand center, near Toulouse. The young man admits to having only one center of interest. - When I ask him what interests him now in life, it's no longer cars, it's no longer clothes, it's no longer girls, it's no longer discos. He said to me: "Now, there is something that interests me a lot, it is the reading of the Koran". - He started asking for prayer books. He told me that in his head he wanted to become upright. - Were you happy that he started reading the Koran and praying? - Sure. - Why? - Because it's our religion Charles. My child was going to become like you. You Catholics wear sleeves in church, pray, so do we. - My hypothesis at the time was that this way of taking an interest in Islam was a somewhat symbolic way of rediscovering the paternal character and finding a certain security which had been sorely lacking in him until then. - And why did he start reading the Koran there? - I don't know, I don't know. - Did people tell him? - No, no one told him. He did it all alone. Is he encouraged by his fellow prisoners or is it to give meaning to his life? As soon as he entered detention, Mohamed began to practice his religion diligently. In his cell, the young man regularly reads the Koran and he now gets up in the middle of the night to pray. - Why are there a lot of young people going there? It's because they are in a period where they are often lost. That's why there are conversions to prisons. Young delinquents, young drug addicts turn to rigorous Islam because they finally have meaning in their lives. It's not so much a meaning to their life, in any case a discipline in their life. - Mohamed begins to practice, but we were not brought up in prayer. We weren't really brought up in Islam. Like me, I practice it today. We weren't brought up that way. Everyone prayed very, very late. We were not educated in religion at all. In this photo taken during his detention, Mohamed lets his beard and hair grow, a sign of his recent conversion. But in the prison, no one really believes in his sudden interest in Islam. - He passed for someone who was not serious, that it was fantasy and that it was buffoonery. Because he sometimes says: "Long live Al-Qaeda", etc. But no one takes it seriously. And yet, things are happening at that moment, in his mind and in his heart. Socially, at least by others, he is seen as someone who is trying to play a character, but who is not up to the character he is trying to play. His smile hides a deep malaise. The young detainee cannot stand being teased and suffers from confinement. After a year of incarceration, on Christmas Day 2008, he tried to hang himself with his sheet in his cell. A few days later, he explains his gesture to the psychologist who examines him. - They told me that he had a real death wish and really wanted to end it at the time. - He explained to you why he made this gesture?. - No. I didn't want to talk about that. - Why? - I do not like. Things of the past, I don't like to keep talking about. Mohamed was 21 when he was released from prison in September 2009. Free but uncomfortable in his skin, he will now show his relatives a double face. On the tails, Momo continues his rodeos in the city, plays football and goes out to nightclubs. On the face side, he secretly renamed himself Abou Youssouf, became radicalized and frequented fundamentalists. The brothers, as he calls them. For his sister Souad, Mohamed's relationship with religious fundamentalists would not have lasted very long after his release from prison. - He frequented them, but very little. Immediately afterwards, he walked away from them. Mohamed was someone who got angry quickly and when you don't follow him, when you don't agree with him, it degenerates quite quickly. So somewhere, I think he enjoyed himself more with the neighborhood kids than with the brothers. - He went to the Mohamed mosque a lot? - Sometimes. Two or three times and then he got fed up. He argued with a friend there and then he stopped going. At that time, his religious education, Mohamed forged it essentially on his own on the Internet. On many free access sites, he repeatedly watches videos of radical preachers from around the world. Some encourage terrorist attacks and martyrdom in the name of Islam. - I call it self-radicalization. These are individuals who are in favorable soil, but who will make their own personal trajectories with little outside contact. And on this, the Internet plays a major role. - And it will get bogged down in a radical Salafist interpretation. And he will seek in there what allows him to exist. Stuffed with ultra-violent videos, Mohamed will slip very seriously for the first time in June 2010. He was then 21 years old and invited a teenager from the neighborhood to his home to watch videos of Islamist propaganda. Executions of infidel women, beheadings of Westerners by the Taliban. The fourteen-year-old boy returns home, traumatized by what he has just seen. Two days later, Merah tumbles into the city. He's furious. He has just learned that the young man's mother has lodged a complaint against him. The sister tries to intervene, but Mohamed attacks her very violently. The young girl was hospitalized the same day and as this medical certificate from the hospital proves, Mohammed badly beat her up. Head trauma, black eye and burst upper lip. The police want to hear from Merah, but the young man cannot be found. He refuses to submit to police authority. A distrust that he will renew two years later, with a tenfold rage when the Raid will try to extract him from his apartment. 3:10 a.m., Mohamed has said his evening prayer and he is still not sleeping. They don't know it yet, but the RAID is about to intervene in a few minutes. Outside, the elite unit prepares to intervene at his home. Arrest is still scheduled for 3:30 a.m. - The police, when they intervene, have the mission to arrest him and to do everything, of course, so that the arrest is done while keeping him alive. Arresting Merah alive is an order given by the President of the Republic in person. - The stake was to say that the president and his team solved a major terrorist crisis some time before the elections. But obviously, this leads to stress and political interference. And all this makes the sauce rise and it can disrupt the intervention. Indeed the intervention of the RAID will not at all proceed as planned. 3:15 a.m., Mohamed is in his living room when a noise coming from the ground floor calls out to him. He recognizes it, it's the lock on the front door of the building. Someone just walked in. Mohamed doesn't know it, but the Raid has just entered his building. The intervention unit progresses in the dark to remain as discreet as possible. In silence, the Raid police officers arrive at the door of the suspect. Mohamed grabs his gun, a Colt 45, because something isn't right . If someone had entered the building, he would necessarily have turned on the light. On the other side, the RAID prepares to install the pneumatic ram to ram the door. But the maneuver causes a barely perceptible noise. Except for Mohamed who understands that the police are behind the door. The Raid boss was on the scene. A few days after the facts, he granted this interview to detail the intervention. - He will on this occasion wound two of my men. One will take a bullet in the thigh and the other will take a bullet in the shoulder. I have a police officer facing the door in his bulletproof vest that will take two projectiles at sternum level. If he didn't have a bulletproof vest, he was dead. The police retaliate by firing into the door. Mohamed, he does not intend to surrender. He barricades himself at home. - Come closer, come closer! I know what I have to do. I am the messenger of Allah! I support Al Qaeda. I hit France. - My mission is to take him alive. If my mission had been to neutralize him by any means, at 3:30 am on Wednesday, it was settled. With the armament we have and the caliber and firepower we have, it was over in three minutes. From then on, the madman prepares to resist. He isolates himself in the bathroom. The most secluded room in the apartment, without a window. Whoever calls himself the messenger of Allah thinks of dressing in a djellaba before putting on a bulletproof vest. Mohamed is ready to fight, weapon in hand, a satchel full of ammunition by his side. - He is a warrior who entered the combat phase against the French state. So we put ourselves on a fallback base in protection to hold the exits so as to ensure that he does not escape. And we begin this famous phase of negotiation. 2 hours after the first failed assault of the Raid, the situation is frozen. Merah is still holed up in her bathroom. The police then decide to cut off the gas and electricity. The madman is plunged into darkness. Like the whole neighborhood. At dawn, the area was cordoned off. The raid prepares for the siege. It is now necessary to do everything so that Merah becomes a prisoner without causing other injuries. In front of the building on rue du Sergent Vigné, a Raid negotiator tries to get in touch with the madman. - Mohammad, can you hear me? I'm the Raid negotiator. We both need to talk. I'll send someone with a walkie, he'll throw it out the window. And to show us your good will, you're going to throw us one of your weapons in exchange. - You understood well? At the same time, 40 kilometers away, in Auterive, Abdelkader Merah, Mohamed's older brother, was arrested at his home with his wife. Unlike his brother, he offered no resistance and allowed himself to be taken to the Toulouse central police station where he was questioned at length. Considered a Salafist close to the Toulouse Islamist movement, investigators suspect him of having played a role in the murders of Toulouse and Montauban. In the early morning, rue du Sergent Vigné, Mohamed agreed to exchange one of his Colt 45s for a Raid walkie-talkie . The madman is ready to talk, but he demands that his interlocutor be a Toulouse intelligence policeman he knows. Market concluded, the official is brought urgently to the headquarters of the Raid. An apartment requisitioned from a neighbor. We have reconstructed the exchanges that took place between Mohamed Merah and the intelligence officer. - I'm a determined person, I didn't do this to let myself be caught. There, we are negotiating, we are negotiating. Afterwards, apart from negotiations, don't forget that I have arms in hand. I know what will happen. I know how you operate to intervene. I know you might shoot me down. It's a risk I take. Know that in front of you, you have a man who is not afraid of death. I, death, love it as you love life. - He told us everything. That the only regret he had was not having killed more people in the Jewish school and not having had time to kill more soldiers as well. - He was a very cruel character, very withdrawn, very convinced, determined. This is what we learned from him. - My goal in these attacks was to kill the soldiers first. Because these soldiers are engaged in Afghanistan and all their allies, whether police, gendarmerie, national police, everything. - My mission, it was to be able to make sure of his person until the extreme limit of our possibilities, in life. This is the reason why we have given every chance to Mohamed Merah to be able to surrender after a very long phase of negotiations that he will ultimately design as a phase of claiming, almost a testament, where he will completely assume all the acts he committed in Toulouse and Montauban. At the beginning of the afternoon, the boss of the Raid considers that the dialogue strategy is the right one. The madman is much calmer and seems ready to cooperate. Moreover, 12 hours after the start of the siege, Merah sends a very positive signal to the police by providing them with the keys to his hideout. A box where, according to him, many physical evidence would be hidden. The police immediately went to the address indicated by Merah, very close to her home. Mohammad didn't lie. This is indeed the famous T-Max scooter spotted at the crime scenes. The registration number has been grossly made up. The C was changed to an O. The scooter and a helmet were repainted white. To go unnoticed, the killer had indeed changed his appearance before going to the Jewish school. The investigators also get their hands on the Colt 45 which was used for the killings. Mohamed Merah has just provided all the evidence of his guilt. His surrender seems well underway. In fact, the young man is bluffing. He has no intention of surrendering at all. This faculty played a double game, he had already exercised it two years earlier in the summer of 2010. On July 17, 2010, Mohamed left France and his legal troubles to fly to Syria. During a four-month trip, he managed to cross a dozen sensitive countries in the Middle East. Here's how Merah went unnoticed when he already had jihad ideas in his head. Mohamed begins by backpacking for a month in Syria. At each stage, he sends his family photos of him by email. On this one, he is at the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. - There, it is the tomb of the prophet Yahya. He told me he was very happy. He told me he ate well there. But in the end he said to me: "Mom, there is no better than France". After a month in Syria, Merah can't stand still. He first joined Mosul in Iraq, where he only spent a few days. Then there he is already in Beirut, for two nights only. What is he looking for? Probably contacts to carry out his jihad. Without success. We know this today, because the local secret services did not notice at the time any link on the spot with jihadist networks. Merah continues her crazy journey head on. On September 5, 2011, he reached Jerusalem by taxi. He poses proudly in front of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. - I told him: "You've come this far, you're brave!" He told me yes. How did you go? He told me: "I passed with the visa" And thanks to his French passport, the Israeli authorities even let him enter the Palestinian territories of the West Bank without any problem. But he does not linger. And two days later, he leaves for Egypt where he will travel for a month. In these photos, Mohamed doesn't really look like a religious fanatic. However, he is already mulling plans for holy war. - There, we have the feeling that he is looking for a deposit. He is looking for someone who will tell him: "yes, the choice of jihad is the right one. Go ahead, do it". For Judge Marc Trévidic, his career in the Middle East is typical of young fundamentalists who want to wage jihad. - They go to the place that symbolizes jihad. It is a need to go and see the real ones. The real ones are in the imagination, the original mujahideen, those who really are on the ground, have succeeded in establishing sharia at times. Jihad is that. It is this territory, what was sold to them on Islamist sites, on the Internet. To find the real fighters, Mohamed flies to Afghanistan. Barely a week after his stay in Egypt. The apprentice jihadist even has a plan in mind. Disarmingly naive, he intends to be kidnapped by the Taliban and reveal his jihad intentions to them. He can then, he hopes, fight the disbelievers on their side. - He will seek to establish the contacts that will allow him to be someone who will finally be taken seriously because he will be able to say: "I went to Egypt, I went to Afghanistan, I established contact". He will look for all the possibilities to show that he is someone in Islam and that he is up to a radicalism in the religion. Mohamed searches, but in Afghanistan, nothing goes as he hoped. On November 22, 2010, just nine days after entering the territory, Merah was arrested by the Afghan police during a check in Kandahar, in the middle of a war zone. Intrigued by this Frenchman who hangs out in the heart of the Taliban stronghold, the Afghans entrust him to the American soldiers. But Merah doesn't look dangerous. The GIs send him back to Kabul. As a precaution, they put him on their no fly list, forbidden to fly to the United States. The information of his arrest in Kandahar is then transmitted to the French authorities. On December 5, 2010, Merah is already back in France. His jihad is a fiasco. In total, the young suburbanite traveled for four months and crossed ten countries. A long and expensive journey for a young man of 23 years. - I asked him how much it cost him. He said to me: "return tickets, all inclusive, I had them for less than 4,000 euros". €4,000 when Mohamed hasn't worked for months. And as evidenced by this statement of account that we obtained, it only affects 390 euros monthly from Pôle emploi. So, with what money did he finance his trip? His sister Souad admits having bought her brother's plane ticket to Syria online with her own bank card. - I didn't finance his trip. I just lent him the credit card to be able to pay him on the Internet. But the money, he gave it to me, the money for his ticket which was 300 and a few euros, he refunded it to me. It's not me who pays him the ticket, it's not a gift. - Why doesn't he pay with his card? - Because he simply didn't have a bank card. According to his mother, Mohamed would have financed his entire trip on his own, by fixing up an old BMW that was sold at exorbitant prices. - He sold the car for 22,000 euros. He bought it for 4000 euros. He fixed it well. He sold it for 22,000 euros. - You're sure of that because when you buy a car for 4,000 euros, you don't resell it for 22,000 euros. - Oh yes, it's a BMW. And how he fixed it! If the family did not help him financially, what did they know of his jihad plans? - The family always has a beneficial role, malefic, not in the passage to the act, but in what makes an individual such as it is. - What is the level of responsibility and involvement of others? That is a problem since it is not determined. But Souad must have known a certain number of things, like all the women in those circles who have always had a lot of information. - What you have to say is that if you really knew something or suspected something, you would never have taken the risk of getting so wet as to pay for a trip with your own bank card. . I was completely ignorant of these projects. Souad would therefore have known nothing of his brother's jihad intentions. This email that Mohamed sent him on September 8, 2010 seems to confirm this. He was then in Jerusalem and he reproached his sister for not having regularized her situation with Pôle Emploi. "The letter for my unemployment, did you send it? It might take you a while to get a sheet and a pen. Me on my side, by the time you answer an email, I had time to I went to Lebanon. The next day, I visited Beirut, I went to the sea and then I came back to Syria and from there I went to Jordan. I found a hotel, I took a walk". Mohamed talks about his tourist visits, his administrative problems, his car. But at no time in his emails does he refer to jihad or the mujahideen. He does not take his sister into his confidence and he is even very aggressive towards her. Because of you, I have the nerves. It's bothering me, so I'm definitely cutting ties with you. And one last time, do not calculate me Souad. You can't know how I give a damn about you. Today, you're like Kader, Aïcha and Abdel. Fuck all of you. Mohamed, already at odds with his other brothers and sisters, decides to cut ties with Souad. They will not see each other again for more than a year. When he returned from his trip on December 5, 2010, the apprentice jihadist was increasingly isolated in Toulouse. Isolated, but not so alone. Because barely a month later, on January 7, 2011, Merah is under surveillance. The Afghan soldiers have just alerted the French authorities that a certain Mohamed Merah was checked a few weeks earlier in Kandahar. The French Interior Intelligence Directorate, the DCRI, took the information seriously and decided to open an investigation. It is the Toulouse intelligence which is responsible for monitoring Merah. The young man is quickly located. He lives alone at 17, rue du Sergent Vigné. Between January and August 2011, investigators carried out 1,200 hours of field surveillance. A camera is even placed in a neighbour's house. She continuously films the entrance to her building. Merah is filmed here in front of his home in June 2011. Hair slicked back, designer clothes, jeans, sneakers, the young man shows no religious sign. Surveillance also shows that he does not attend a mosque. On the surface, Merah seems to be keeping quiet. He works from time to time as a coachbuilder in a garage and he has started playing football again in the city. But as usual, Mohamed plays a double game and the intelligence agents who monitor him are not fooled. First, they find that Merah doesn't use a cell phone. The young man prefers to call from a cabin downstairs, as if he wanted to cover his tracks. More worryingly, Merah spends whole days locked up at home in the dark, totally alone. The guards of the residence where Mohamed lived knew this tenant who was not talked about. - A perfectly ordinary young man. A bit of a fashion victim, always very well dressed. - Clean, shaved, fragrant. When we passed him, there was his smell of perfume. Hello Goodbye! Good luck Monsieur Madame, it's sunny, it's raining, it's cold. Here is. Nothing to report therefore, until May 2011. An intelligence officer from Toulouse rings at their door. This policeman, whom we will call Karim, asks the guards to take a discreet look at a certain Mohamed Merah. - One morning, I entered the building and approached the door of Mohamed Merah and said: "There is someone". So as I had the number of the policeman, I told myself that I was going to call him as he had asked me to keep him informed. and by the time I pull out my phone, someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around and it's this young man who was in front of me. So Mohamed Merah, and he asks me who I am. I tell him that I am the caretaker of the residence. He apologized and left. It worried me because I didn't feel it coming behind me. I arrived, I climbed the stairs slowly. I put my ear gently. I walked out slowly. He was behind me. It proves that he was still someone who was on the alert. He's a suspicious person. Merah suspicious. The intelligence policeman, Karim, already knows this very well. All the surveillance notes written by his service describe, month after month, the increasingly disturbing behavior of the young man. Merah behaves like someone who knows she is being watched. Dangerous and irresponsible behavior when driving his vehicle, sometimes with the obvious objective of breaking any shadowing. The source confirms the paranoid behavior of Mohamed Merah. But it is a note dated March 3, 2011 that is particularly appealing today. The police suspect Merah of being involved in a jihadist project. Several significant elements suggest the involvement of Merah in a channel for transporting combatants to the Afghan-Pakistani tribal areas. The note does not provide further details. But how to explain that with such suspicions, Toulouse intelligence did not decide to act? Why, during these seven months of surveillance, has Merah not been interrogated or arrested? - In view of the elements held at that time by the DCRI, by the DGSE, by all the intelligence services, Mohamed Merah could have been arrested. More than 1200 hours of surveillance, a whole workforce deployed to monitor him and yet he has not been arrested. - There was a mistake. - Flagrant. - I remind you that in France, we are lucky to live in a state of law. You don't call people like that when you decide to. First, arrests are made on the basis of a judicial decision or on flagrante delicto and they are never made on offenses of opinion or intention to travel. For someone to be arrested, they have to do something that is against the law. Despite all these observations, never appeared the slightest beginning of a criminal intent. - You know, going to court is quite easy. I'm not necessarily talking about an investigation, but at least a preliminary prosecution investigation to find out if there is an offense that holds water, it's not difficult. So of course. - But why didn't we do it? - The Merah case is the Merah case. Here is. But anyway, the anti-terrorist system is made to prevent attacks. If there is an attack, there is a mistake. This photo seems to confirm that Toulouse intelligence could have made a mistake. It comes from the surveillance of the police and it shows that Merah is still observed on August 17, 2011. And despite the suspicions hanging over him, the police will let him fly away quietly two days later, towards the El Dorado of the jihadists . Pakistan . For two months, in the summer of 2011, Merah criss-crossed the country from Lahore to the tribal areas, looking for jihadists. And this time, he will find them. We traveled to Pakistan to retrace his incredible journey and meet those who helped him become a terrorist. Mohamed obtained a tourist visa ten days earlier. He travels in good standing. Officially, he is looking for a Muslim wife. When he arrived in Lahore on August 20, he played the tourist as usual, filming himself in front of the city's monuments, the old fort, the great mosque. And the one we call the Eiffel Tower of Lahore. Mohamed has just bought a Pakistani phone with a prepaid card. And the evening of his arrival, the first person he hastens to call is his mother to reassure her. - I told him: "Mohamed, it's a dangerous country! They kill people everywhere there". He told me: "No! Don't worry, I'm traveling and then I'm going back". Mohamed also regularly sends emails to his family from his Abu Yussuf address. In Lahore, he connects to his voicemail in this pay phone, right next to the building of the Pakistani secret services, he knows. This document, established a few months later by the French police, lists all of Merah's Internet connections in Pakistan. This list allows us today to retrace his itinerary throughout the country. In two months of travel, Merah crosses a dozen Pakistani cities. He even managed to reach the tribal areas, then stopped in Abbottabad to collect his thoughts in front of the house where Bin Laden was killed . A long journey of more than 3500 kilometers by bus and car. Mohamed stubbornly seeks the Taliban, as he had done in Afghanistan. - He wants to fight, that's for sure. He wants to do something. He multiplies the contacts and multiplies all the steps to set up the justification system. He must be able to think that the moment he is going to act, he does so with divine authorization, like any fanatic. It is in Islamabad, at the beginning of September 2011, that Mohamed will finally find the one he is looking for. According to international terrorism experts, the man who helped Merah in Pakistan is most likely Abdul Aziz Ghazi. The imam, who was close to Bin Laden, directs the Red Mosque, one of the most radical in the country. The man can be a sesame for all jihadists who want to go into battle. But how did Mohamed, a young suburbanite from Toulouse, approach this powerful imam? By his own admission, it was child's play. He will brag about it to the men of the Raid a few months later, during the siege of his apartment. Rue du Sergent Vigné at the end of the afternoon, Mohamed is still entrenched in his bathroom. Alone against the raid which is still trying to negotiate its surrender under the best conditions. But for now, Mohamed wants to talk and the police are listening with great interest to what looks like a confession. -I traveled to several countries to find the brothers. All the other countries that I have done in Afghanistan, I have not found them. I found them in Pakistan. - How long did you stay in Pakistan? - Two months to the day. I took about ten days to find the brothers. I gained their trust. To gain their trust, Mohamed explains that he went to the nerve. "In Islamabad, I walked into a certain mosque and saw a man who I had heard was openly supporting the Taliban. I spoke with him, telling him that I wanted to join Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, all that. From there, he sent me to a Taliban emir and after I joined the brothers. It surprised me. It all seemed too easy to me." The man from the mosque that Mohamed is talking about, the one who would have helped him to join the Taliban, would therefore be this man. The Imam of the Red Mosque in Islamabad. Abdoul Aziz Ghazi, is a radicalist who openly calls for jihad against the West. He agreed to meet with us. He does not deny having received Mohamed Merah a few months ago. - Yes, I may have met him. It's possible, but I don't remember. I meet so many people. Dozens of students come to see me every day to take my advice. If someone comes to ask me for advice on doing jihad, I don't stop him, quite the contrary. Jihad is very important. It is part of our religion. It is a reaction against cruelty and injustice. People who die as martyrs, guns in hand, like some of my students in the past, are blessed people. There is a subtle fragrance that emanates from their graves. We remind him that Merah killed innocent people, children. But the imam, far from condemning these crimes, even goes so far as to justify them, with a smile on his face. - If Merah committed these acts in the name of Islam, then she is a martyr. Extremely shocking and unacceptable comments. Did the imam help Merah join the Taliban in the tribal areas? It is probable, because after his stay in Islamabad, Mohamed disappears from the radar screens. Between September 28 and October 9, no Internet connection is activated from his mailbox. In fact, Merah has already left for Miranshah, in the west of the country, to learn how to handle weapons in a training camp for jihadists. We will follow in his footsteps. - Ah yes! Very good camera! But impossible for us to enter the tribal areas. We entrust our camera to Mohammad, a cameraman from the region. Because in Miranshah, foreigners are quickly considered spies. - It's simple, no foreigner can go there without the permission of the Taliban. Anyone who tries to do so will be arrested or killed immediately. Very few are those who have been able to film on this perilous road that leads to the tribal areas. But thanks to his exceptional authorization, our cameraman will be able to enter the territories held by the Taliban. Miranshah is half a day from Islamabad. Merah is taken there by a Taliban on a motorbike who knows the road and its dangers. The sector is not controlled by the army, but you have to show your credentials at the many checkpoints that dot the route. On the side of the road, ruined buildings completely destroyed by American drones. Mohamed is not reassured. He fears at any moment to fall into an ambush. But after 10 hours on the road, they arrive safe and sound in Miranshah. He crosses this bazaar of another time where no woman has the right to circulate. Finally, the jihadist camp where he hopes to be trained. A camp like this, according to our cameraman, who is not allowed to film it closer. Merah is first taken to an isolated house where he will be questioned about his faith and his jihad intentions. And after a few days, once the doubts have been lifted, the Taliban agree to present him to this man. Moez Garsallaoui who at the time recruited and trained jihadists around the world for Al-Qaeda. He speaks French and very quickly becomes Mohammed's confidants, his instructor, his mentor. On these images of Islamist propaganda, these young jihadists are filmed in a training camp. It is in a camp like this that Merah also received, at the end of September 2011, a two-day express training in handguns, Kalashnikovs and grenades. And like this young mujahideen, Mohamed very quickly loses all discernment. Dragged into delirious fanaticism, he even proudly tried on an explosive belt like this. A few months later, with the same arrogance, he will recount his exploits at the raid. Still entrenched in his bathroom, Mohamed has been talking for hours to the men of the Raid, flabbergasted by the story of his training in Pakistan. - And you, what is the training that you followed? Can you tell me about it? - I was offered to make the bombs. I did not want. I told them "train me with the pistol". I have been offered attacks in America, in Canada. I told them that as I was French, it was easier for me to attack France. Attacking France, Merah had prepared for it as soon as he returned from Pakistan and his project was never thwarted by the police. After his rapid training in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Mohamed was back in Toulouse on October 19, 2011. This time, he came back strong from the license to kill granted by his mentor. But also very weakened by severe hepatitis A. His liver did not support the food of the tribal areas. - My son, since he left for Pakistan, something has been going around in his head. He became ill, he became black. Mohamed is slowly getting back on his feet. And a month after his return from Pakistan, on November 14, 2011, he went to a summons from Toulouse intelligence. The brigadier, a certain Karim, wants to question him about his trip. Karim knows Merah well. He participated in his surveillance a few months earlier and it was he who had left his business card with the caretaker of his building. Merah, as usual, gives the change. He claims a moderate practice of Islam and presents himself as a backpacker. As proof, he shows his tourist photos taken in Syria, Egypt or Pakistan. On the other hand, of course, he says nothing about his time in the tribal areas. The interview lasts several hours and if we are to believe the police report, Merah has succeeded in convincing them of the simply touristic purpose of her travels. Mohamed Merah told us that he went to Pakistan for tourist purposes. This meeting did not make it possible to make the link between Mohamed Merah and a possible jihadist network. - Wait, you know very well that a guy who radicalizes, who has an American profile, who has already been on a trip and who goes back, if we say he is going to do some tourism, we stayed or not. It's not worth being a policeman. We have an appointment with an intelligence officer who knows the case well. He testifies anonymously because he risks his place. But he wants to denounce the lack of professionalism of the service which monitored Mohamed Merah. - When you're in an intelligence service, how can you believe that? According to this policeman, Karim would on the contrary have understood that Merah was looking for a jihadist vein. He could therefore become an excellent source of information, a valuable informant for his service. - Karim, at one point, he must have thought: "Hey, that's not bad. I have someone who can go to Afghanistan, Pakistan and everything". He must have said to himself: "it's good, shortly, I'm going to have interesting information in Pakistan, in Afghanistan". - We're going to tell him: "listen, here we are, we know that you're doing a certain number of things. It hasn't gone too far yet. Maybe you can get back on the right track, we can close our eyes to a certain number of your activities. In exchange, you give us a certain amount of information on the people you frequent, on the countries in which you go". It is, in the literal sense, what is called an indicator, a balance. Has Karim decided to make Merah a source upon his return from Pakistan? In any case, the conclusions of the November 14 interview envisaged this option. Mohamed Merah appeared to be a rather clever and open person who could be of interest for our theme because of his traveler profile. Merah, on the other hand, seemed ready to become an informant. He reportedly spoke to his sister about it just before his interview with Karim. -He said to me: "Souad, if they ever ask me to work for them, I work" and I said to him: "But you are sick, you want to be a snitch. He said to me: "If they ask me , I work for them ” . It was with him that he was talking right after his return - From Pakistan - From Pakistan, yes - I repeat, he was in no way an informant I say this categorically - You would know otherwise? "Yes, of course. However, after the interview on November 14, there are no more intelligence notes on Merah. The young man is therefore no longer under surveillance at all. Has he concluded a pact with intelligence ? " Become an informant in exchange for the cessation of surveillance. For four months, in any case, he has his hands free to prepare his crimes without anyone seeing anything coming. - Already in for a moment, he did not know how to gauge the true value of what he had in his hands. His subject exploded in his face. Afterwards, it is not necessary to throw the reproach only on him. Beyond that, there is a total and complete bankruptcy of the intelligence services. Merah would have succeeded in manipulating the intelligence services and Karim in particular. He will brag about it, triumphing during the siege of his apartment. Remember, from the start of the siege, Merah demanded to speak to a policeman he knew. This policeman is the famous Karim. Mohamed did not choose it at random. He is proud to have manipulated him and he takes pleasure in taunting him. - You think I'm going to do tourism in Pakistan, Afghanistan? Who saw you doing tourism in these countries? - You told me. - Al harb khoudaa, do you know what that means? - Go ahead! Developed! - It means: "War is a ruse". I traveled to several countries to find the brothers. When you summoned me, when I went to your offices, I was in contact with them. I had found them. That, I think, is one of the biggest mistakes of your career. Mohammed is playing, but he promises to go after nightfall, after evening prayers. The hours pass and he delays the deadline for his surrender ever further. Until 10:45 p.m. when he suddenly announces that he has changed his mind. - I decided not to surrender anymore. Well, I can't. It contradicts everything I do. I can't give myself away like this. - No no no. Contradictions, I don't believe in them. - No, no, I'm not surrendering. It's decided. Since this morning, when I asked you for time, it was mainly to regain energy because I hadn't slept, I was very tired. After you return, as I told you, I will defend myself to the death. And know one thing, I too will hurt many of you. - It was he who decided, after more than 20 hours of negotiations, to break off contact with us. We try to keep him awake all night with stun grenades to keep him from resting. And on top of that, I keep the negotiator facing the door so that, until the last extreme limit, at the last second, he can still lay down his arms and return to better intentions. These images are filmed by a neighbor. In the middle of the night, the raid blew the windows of the apartment. Merah, surprised, retaliates briefly. Then no more noise. Until the next morning. At this late hour, his brother Abdelkader is still in custody. Suspected of having helped Mohamed to commit these murders. Abdelkader denies any involvement. But he multiplies ambiguous statements. This one, for example, which suggests that he knew of Mohamed's jihad plans. - About a month ago, two or three days after our reconciliation, he spoke to me again about jihad. He wanted to move quickly, find a vein or make shots in France or abroad. I am for following the steps. Abdelkader makes it clear that he was not in tune with his brother. But he then defends a certain need to wage holy war. Any good Muslim who applies the Koran and the prophetic traditions as they should, must automatically practice jihad, with however certain rules to respect. Troubled statements. And there are these material elements found at his home during the search. - When you search Abdelkader Merah's house, what do you find? Paraffin oil. Product which can enter into the composition of explosive devices. We find the jacket of a book on weapons. There are DVDs on terrorist organizations. The attack of September 11 and why this curious observation? Seven months before the facts, some data from his i-Pod is erased. The police managed to recover this data which Abdel Kader says he erased by mistake. These are instructions for apprentice jihadists downloaded from the Internet. Some are strangely reminiscent of the precautions taken by Merah before taking action. How to deceive the intelligence service which is on the heels of the jihadists? It is necessary to have a suitable image vis-à-vis the population. They outright ban the phone. When it's hot, you have to isolate yourself, not move and sow doubt. It's good to travel by motorbike. The motorcycle, precisely, is the main element that overwhelms Abdelkader. While in police custody, he admits to having been present during the theft of the scooter which was used to commit the murders. And this is how he tells the police about the scene. - So the three of us were driving, me at the wheel, my friend as a passenger. And my little brother behind us. Suddenly, Mohamed abruptly told me to stop. He disappeared for a minute. Then I saw him go by at full speed. My colleague insisted that we follow him and I followed his recommendations. My brother and co-worker eventually hid the scooter in a residence. Afterwards, my brother explained to me that he had seen the scooter with the key in the ignition. The key to the contact was for Mohamed, according to his declarations to the men of the Raid, nothing less than a sign from Allah to take action. According to Souad, this would tend to prove that Abdel Kader was unaware of his brother 's intentions . - There is no need to be a very good investigator to understand that Kader is innocent and that it is not premeditated. Kader, we can see that he has no idea what Mohamed is going to do. Otherwise he would have really taken to his heels, he would have fled. So Mohamed, I'm sure he did this on his own. He wasn't helped by Kader, that's for sure. A year after the events, Abdelkader is still imprisoned in Fresnes prison. The investigation is ongoing and she has not yet determined her responsibility for the murders. But for the families of victims, Mohamed could not act alone. - He's a lone wolf! No! He may have, in the precise execution of the action, acted alone, but this is not certain. That doesn't mean he was isolated, though. That doesn't mean we haven't helped him though. - In our eyes, Abdelkader prepared this act with his brother and probably with other sectors close to the jihad in the area in Toulouse and probably abroad as well. - Where are these people? No one is behind bars. - The investigation is ongoing. - She hasn't proven anything yet. - At the time when I speak to you, we haven't arrested any accomplices, but we don't despair. - Why don't we despair? It is absolutely necessary that he had accomplices? - We do not despair because in our eyes, Mohamed Merah could not act alone. To date, the investigation has not demonstrated the involvement of other relatives of Mohamed, but the families of the victims suspect that his environment, deeply rooted in religious fundamentalism, could have influenced him. - Merah grew up in this environment and grew up in her family, among radicalized brothers and sisters. He may have had connections with other individuals. So all this is not spontaneous generation. It is indisputable. He was in favorable soil. - That does not necessarily mean that there is a provision of means to accomplish these acts. - We are in favourable, favorable factors. The possibilities of emergence, therefore of terrorists, exist. - Toulouse, the pot, we bathe in it since young. We have lots of contacts everywhere, we do lots of trips. And then, all of a sudden, we'd be all alone. You ask me for my opinion because I don't know enough about the file to have anything other than an opinion. But my opinion is this. I would be surprised if it was all alone. Was he alone to prepare his crimes? After stealing the scooter, anyway, five days before his first murder, Mohamed is ready. He organized himself like a professional. First he bought weapons, seven in total. Three Colt 45s, a Magnum, a shotgun and two machine guns. Child's play for Merah. In several cities of the region, the sale of arms under the coat is commonplace. Mohamed then rented two boxes. The first to hide his scooter and weapons. In the second, he has provided a car if he has to flee and 5,000 euros in cash. According to his statements, Mohamed would have financed everything by playing the driver in the middle of banditry. Five days after the theft of the scooter, on March 11, 2012, Merah is therefore ready to claim numerous victims. Only the intervention of the police will put an end to his macabre epic. After 32 hours of siege, Mohamed is ready to die if necessary. He hasn't moved since the day before. This morning, he awaits the raid, arms in hand. The elite unit, for its part, is preparing to dislodge it. And for good this time. At the same time, a neighbor films this scene in front of the building. We see Bernard Squarcini, then head of intelligence. And behind him, Amina and Souad Merah, Mohamed's two sisters. - Arrived there, I waited, waited, waited. I really wanted to talk to him, but we weren't given the chance. At 10:30 a.m., a Raid commando is already behind the door of his apartment, ready to take over the premises. Outside, snipers are positioned to cover their progress. The police have just broken down the door. They move slowly in this shambles, fearing that Merah has trapped her apartment with explosives. - The progression is done for almost an hour. This tells you how quickly and with what precautions we enter the premises. When we arrive near the bathroom, where he is, we start to make a breach to send him tear gas canisters. The police begin to break through the partition that separates them from the bathroom where Merah is hiding. But Mohamed suddenly comes out of hiding. Outside, police film the shooting of a rare intensity. - It was decided to shoot him? - No, not at all, not at all. It was decided to arrest him. When the apartment was raided, it was Merah who shot the police. It wasn't the police who shot Merah. The police defended themselves on the other hand, that's true. Merah fires madly at the police. He hopes to push them back to reach the living room window through which he wants to escape. - And it will progress in the apartment in the middle of us. You have to imagine that there, we are fighting in an apartment that is less than 40 square meters. It gives you an idea of the violence with which Mohamed Merah decided to die. Despite the 300 bullets fired by the police to stop him, Merah manages to reach the living room window. - And it is when he is going to pass his arm above the balcony that my snipers are going to neutralize him. Mohamed dies instantly from a bullet in the head, the other in the spinal cord. He collapses below, in the bushes of the residence. - The feeling of the families is that 32 hours of siege to finally not capture Mohamed Merah alive is a failure. Because these families wanted to hear from the mouth of Mohamed Merah, why he took the life of their son? He is dead. He left with his secret. Two weeks after the death of Mohamed Merah, the Toulouse intelligence officer and several Raid police officers were decorated with the Legion of Honor. Moez Garsallaoui, Merah's mentor, was killed in October 2012 by US drone fire in Pakistan. Convinced that accomplices are still running, the families of victims are demanding the declassification of secret defense documents. The intelligence services would thwart two attacks each year in France.
