Jihadist Nemmouche denies involvement in Islamic State kidnappings

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00:00This highly anticipated trial finally getting underway today and in the first part of the trial

00:05we had each of the defendants in this case presenting themselves. The judge asked them

00:11where they were from, he asked them to confirm their names and when they were born and what they

00:16were doing before they were arrested. And a particularly poignant moment during that part

00:21of the trial was Mehdi Namush who after presenting himself talking about when he was born he went

00:26straight away to protesting what he had been accused of. He said that he was never one of

00:32the captors in this case, he says that he's never met the victims in this case. Now two of the

00:39victims are present in court today, Edouard Elias and Didier Francois. They are just two of the four

00:46French journalists that were taken during the spring to summer of 2013 while reporting in Syria.

00:53They were taken alongside a Spanish journalist as well as two aid workers, one of them being

00:59the British man David Haynes who unfortunately didn't make it out alive out of Syria. He

01:05was executed in September of 2014 and Islamic State did release that horrific video of his

01:13execution. We also have heard from the lawyer of Mehdi Namush, he spoke to reporters just before

01:20entering the courtroom and he said that the testimonies from victims can't be taken as gospel

01:27truth. He said that they aren't sacred, he also said that this is not going to be a mass for the

01:32victims and he said that he'd be diligent to protest the testimonies being put forward by

01:39the victims in this case. So Inga just remind us then of what exactly they're all being accused of.

01:44Yes that's right, so the four defendants or the five defendants in this case, two of which are

01:53being tried in absentia are accused of kidnapping, they're also accused of acts of torture and

02:00accused of acts of barbarity during those months of captivity that the victims in this case were

02:07put through. The victims have spoken extensively about what they experienced while in captivity,

02:13particularly Didier Francois, one of the journalists in this case, he said that he

02:18experienced personal hell during his months of captivity, saying it was an experience that he

02:24wouldn't wish on anybody. He's spoken about how Mehdi Namush in particular was a particularly

02:30sadistic, narcissistic and playful person while they were kept in captivity. He said that

02:38sometimes he would offer them tea and when he would reach out to give them the cups and they

02:42would reach out, he would then pour boiling water on them and it's just part of a wider narrative

02:49of torture and physical violence that was inflicted on these victims. They've talked about

02:55how they had their fingernails pulled out with pliers, that they were taunted with mock executions,

03:00they've also spoken about how they were tortured with electric shocks and it is just really

03:06horrific what we have been hearing in court today and I'm sure over the next few weeks of

03:12the trial, this trial is going to be going on for five weeks, there will be more and more of those

03:17horrific testimonies coming out. The lawyers, it's important to say that the lawyers, Mehdi

03:23Namush's lawyers say that he was in fact in Syria, he was in Syria during 2013 fighting

03:29alongside Islamic State but that he did not participate in the captivity of those hostages.

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