They don't look at each other but sit side by side in the front row. Halima El Bakhti and Ahmed Touloub, 72 and 74 years old respectively, face, Monday, November 2, the Loir-et-Cher Assize Court, thirty-nine years after the death of their daughter Inass, whom they abandoned along the A10 motorway in August 1987. Separated since 2010, both appear free at their trial and arrived one after the other at the judicial court of Blois.
The little girl's mother slowly climbed the steps of the courthouse, camouflaged under the black dress of her lawyer, criminal lawyer Camille Radot. The father, represented by Lille tenor Frank Berton and his associate Yasmina Belmokhtar, presented himself with a surgical mask and sunglasses. Both are scrutinized by the 80 journalists present for the legal outcome of one of the oldest French “cold cases”.
In the afternoon, the long and heavy reading of the judgment of the investigating chamber by the president of the Assize Court, Audrey Debeugny, plunged the courtroom into fear. The autopsy report on the tortured body of little Inass seems endless: "The general appearance is that of a beaten female child, of normal build, measured at 95 cm", "numerous wounds of different ages are scattered over the body", "a good part of her wounds have the appearance of bites". “The death probably did not occur suddenly but rather gradually,” completes the chilling coroner’s report.
“Can you hear what I’m saying?”
The ex-spouses listen attentively, a few centimeters apart. Halima El Bakhti stares into space, clearly moved. The mother of the 4-year-old "little martyr" does not let go of her beige raincoat, wrapped in a big scarf. At his side, Ahmed Touloub, the father with a bald head and white beard, remains motionless during the hour of reading the facts. He stares at his feet, face resting in his hand, almost seeming to sleep.
"Mr. Touloub? Can you hear what I'm saying? If there are hearing problems, you tell me," the president suddenly says, visibly worried about the state of health of the accused. The septuagenarian signals that he hears clearly. The magistrate resumes. In the public, a row of five women, who came to attend the hearing, oscillate between sadness, disgust and embarrassment, listening to the statements of the spouses during their police custody, in June 2018, then during their successive interrogations.
Halima El Bakhti admitted that she regularly “hit” her daughter and “slapped her” but “no longer remembered any burns or bites on the child”. Ahmed Touloub described a little girl martyred by the violence of his wife and admitted to having been "a coward" by never having denounced her "for fear that the children would not be placed in care". The couple's six other children, all auditioned, portrayed a psychologically fragile mother, prey to violent "crises", throwing herself on the ground or tearing her clothes for no apparent reason, then becoming tender and attentive with them again.
“They lied about me”
The couple's second daughter, born just before Inass, submitted a text about her mother. Aged 6 at the time of her little sister's death, she speaks today, at 45, of "interlocking, bogged down violence, mixed with unconditional, violent and exhausting love".
“If I had had the maturity and sufficient distance, I would have understood that it was what we call madness, to be crazy.”
The couple's second daughter
in a letter given to investigators
At the end of the afternoon, the president invited Halima El Bakhti to come to the stand for the first time of the day. The magistrate recalls that the septuagenarian is being prosecuted for “acts of torture and barbarity leading to death without intention of causing it”. What does she have to say about these criminal qualifications, for which she faces life imprisonment? “They lied about me, that’s not true,” Halima El Bakhti first declares in an uncertain voice, accusing her ex-husband and her daughters of having “lied a lot.” The president asks her again if she recognizes the alleged facts. “No, she’s my daughter,” stammers the accused, before sitting down again.
It is Ahmed Touloub's turn to position himself: the man leans on the usher and walks painfully to the desk, helped by his cane. “I didn't do anything... I never touched any of my children,” he says in a small voice, seeming to struggle for words. Does he recognize “complicity” in his wife’s crime, of which he is accused and for which he also faces life imprisonment? “I was beaten myself, so how can I be complicit?” he says before returning to his chair.
“I will try to come and assume”
The president specifies that she had medical examinations carried out on the two accused to ensure their ability to appear until November 18. Examined on October 16, Halima El Bakhti presented depressive symptoms and mild cognitive impairment but “understood the questions and cooperated,” the report said. The doctor considers that “his state of health is compatible with his appearance”. The president asks her if she thinks she is able to attend the trial. “The sessions are long”, complains the septuagenarian, who specifies that she has “kidney pain”. The president insists and explains that the trial must make it possible to understand “how things happened”. “I will try to come and assume responsibility,” declares Halima El Bakhti.
The doctor who examined Ahmed Touloub on October 15 reported “mild to moderate cognitive disorders” about him. He nevertheless considers that "his state of health is compatible with his appearance before the Assize Court". Inass's father assures him: "Sometimes I have memory lapses." The two defense lawyers are demanding additional psychiatric assessments for their clients, with Frank Berton recalling that we cannot “bring in someone who would not be able to understand the questions”. A request to which the public prosecutor opposes. “The case is ready to be judged,” insists the attorney general, Stéphane Javet. He encourages the court to adapt to his pace, by reformulating “the complex passages”.
After deliberations, the president announced in the evening the rejection of the request for additional expertise for Halima El Bakhti, but validated it concerning Ahmed Touloub. It is based in particular on the fact that the doctor's report in October reported "a moderate probability of dementia". However, the debates will not be suspended, underlines the president, who hopes to receive the medical results concerning the father of the child "in the coming days". The rest of the trial depends on this new expertise.
