On November 2, 2013, our colleagues Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon were kidnapped and then killed in Kidal in northern Mali while reporting. Seven years later, one of the sponsors and two of the alleged kidnappers are still driving. In 2019, RFI revealed that French special forces had tried to pursue the kidnappers. Information confirmed for the first time this year by a French officer.
Seven years ago today, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, a journalist and technician at Radio France Internationale, were kidnapped and murdered in Kidal while reporting in this northern Mali city. An act claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Since then, the investigation has seen very few developments, the most recent being the testimony of a French soldier who was present in Kidal that day. After the revelations of RFI in the summer of 2019, this officer confirmed to the examination court in June last year and for the first time the presence of the special forces on the spot. He led the secession that officially discovered the bodies of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon.
In a hearing that RFI was able to learn about, this French officer confirmed to the judge the presence in Kidal that day of “ten” special forces soldiers. What he had not mentioned during his first testimony.
According to him, these special forces provided only intelligence in Kidal, were very poorly equipped – “very light civilian vehicles”, another “without armor and without heavy weapons except a 12-7 machine gun” -au point to not even be able to ensure their own safety . They therefore regularly used the services of conventional troops.
Other French military sources confirm the mission of these special forces – to be in contact with Tuareg leaders who then controlled Kidal – but also remember their specificity: they are elite soldiers capable of responding in any situation.
Several other sources present in Kidal in the same camp as the Special Forces soldiers confirm to the RFI that these men were not so numerous, but assure on the other hand that they had armored vehicles, heavy weapons and that they were in able to act autonomously.
Contradictions
In any case, the French officer, heard by the Ministry of Justice on 2 November 2013, does not hide that the special forces were trying to react as quickly as possible. But according to him, their action was limited to pursuing a vehicle that turned out to be the wrong one – “a fake track”.
According to this testimony, at least twenty minutes elapse between the moment when the commander of the special forces is warned and the moment when he warns the conventional troops, who, however, according to him are the only ones who are able to try anything. understand that these elite soldiers tried to intervene while the officer continues in his story to minimize their significance at the time in Kidal?
In the face of these contradictions, a hearing with Commander Charles, who at the time was in charge of the special forces there, could help to see things more clearly.
A feeling that we have not been told everything
Marie-Solange Poinsot is the mother of Ghislaine Dupont. She is now 90 years old and for her these late revelations are seeping down, giving birth to an uncomfortable feeling that she is not getting to know everything about the circumstances under which her daughter was murdered.
I want to know why the army is lying to us. The outgoing army did not mention the special forces at all. We had never heard “Special Forces”. Something is hidden from us.
Marie-Solange Poinsot, mother of Ghislaine Dupont
“Technical concern” at Malitel
Apart from this testimony of the French officer, the investigation has not seen any other significant progress this year. Malitel has still not disclosed the data requested by the judge to allow investigation of the phone bills found especially in the kidnappers’ car.
The fadets from Orange Mali have already made it possible for investigators to identify specific actors and establish links between them. But on the Malitel side, nothing “usable” was transmitted. Since the first request from the French investigating judge in 2015, the operator has sent several shipments, but the data provided did not correspond to the correct periods. No interest therefore in the investigators.
A year ago, requested by the RFI, the director of Malitel, Abdelaziz Biddine, explained that he was ready to do whatever was necessary. Since then, the courts have made new demands, and the situation has changed somewhat.
Last December, in a letter sent by Malitel to the Malian judge who was in contact with French justice and which RFI was able to take note of, the telephone operator mentions “a technical problem with the disks” which requires ” to use the services of an expert to perform the requested verifications as soon as possible ”.
What technical problems are these? How can it be that these difficulties have never been mentioned before? Will the designated expert have the technical means to recover the precious data? The director of Malitel does not want to comment today. On the part of the civil parties, we want to believe in the success of these new approaches.
“I would like to say to myself: we see a close result”
Last year, Apolline Verlon, daughter of Claude Verlon, wrote to President Emmanuel Macron to try to get answers. Without success. Seven years later, Apolline Verlon finds that the investigation is not moving fast enough.
You can not mourn until you know what may have happened seven years ago … […] Writing to the president, after having zero answers, undermines you.
Apolline Verlon, daughter of Claude Verlon.
To try to educate the president, Apolline Verlon is now writing to Brigitte Macron.
► To read also: G. Dupont and C. Verlon dead: a senator calls the armed forces minister
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