When he started chatting in Arabic with one of his passengers on the evening of December 11, 2018, Mostafa Salhane, a taxi driver in Strasbourg, was far from suspecting the fifteen chilling minutes which were going to take place behind the closed doors of his vehicle. The customer who has just told him to “hurry up and drive” is called Chérif Chekatt and has just commit an attack at the city’s Christmas market.
The man has just claimed responsibility for his terrorist act in front of a taken aback Mostafa Salhane. “At that moment you don’t realize”confides the taxi driver in Voices of Crime. “I don’t think I believe it, but I’m going to believe it very, very quickly because he shows me his arm which is bleeding a lot.”
As he fled, the attacker was injured by response fire from soldiers from Operation Sentinel. This wound will allow Mostafa Salhane to flee after a discussion punctuated by the demands of his passenger who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
I said “no, I don’t agree with what you did”
Mostafa Salhane
Behind the closed doors of his vehicle, the driver keeps his cool. In the 1990s, this former karate champion recounts having encountered “small strikes” like Chérif Chekatt: young people without reference points whom he helped through sport.
“Except that they go where the wind blows,” he explains. “And if it’s in the hands of people who will brainwash them by telling them that, through religion, they will appease themselves, but at the same time, we should destroy everything that does not resemble them, well, they will follow them.”
Mostafa Salhane, a Muslim of Moroccan origin, finds himself trapped with this man who claims to belong to a religion he doesn’t know. “I said ‘no, I don’t agree with what you did. It’s your business, I’m not going to judge you'”, he confides.
The general public needs to know that, indeed, there was a killer that evening, a terrorist, but also a savior who saved lives, who was a French Muslim.
Mostafa Salhane
Mostafa Salhane manages to escape and describe the terrorist to the authorities. Thanks to him, Chérif Chekatt is identified. He was killed after 48 hours of tracking.
Today, Mostafa Salhane is no longer a taxi driver. He founded an association: the Attack Victims Association (AVA). Thanks to this new structure, he supports people who, like him, have experienced the horror of terrorism and fights against radicalization by insisting on “the true values of Islam”. “Sharing, love, kindness, tolerance, peace,” he lists.
“The general public needs to know that, indeed, there was a killer that evening, a terrorist, but also a savior who saved lives, who was also a French Muslim and who loves this France and who defends it and has paid a dear price for it.”
After this race which he recounts in his book 15 minutes to save my life (Plon, 2024), Mostafa Salhane remained “locked in the dark for two years”, suffering from post-traumatic stress. He hopes that the trial which opened on February 29 will allow him to rebuild his life.
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>> Voices of Crime are lawyers, investigators, close to victims, suspects or culprits. These key witnesses speak to RTL journalists. Unpublished testimonies, which shed new light on justice and the major criminal cases of today.
Twice a month, one of these Voices of Crime tells us their point of view on a criminal case. An RTL podcast.
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2024-03-02 09:16:39
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