Nonetheless, it was unusual for the boy to spend so much time with youths in their late teens and early 20s.
"There are other kids his age who become very religious, boys and girls," Sakho said. "But not to the point of leaving school and going to a foreign country."
Salah and Diakhabi became followers of Farid Benyettou, an Algerian-French street preacher. He was a fixture at the Addawa Mosque on narrow Tanger Street in an area dominated by drab high-rises and industrial compounds.
A weather-beaten building without a minaret or ornamentation, the mosque is one of the largest in Paris, attracting as many as 1,500 worshipers on Fridays. Its leaders have not been linked to the alleged extremists.
In other terrorism cases around Europe, accused ringleaders were in their 30s or 40s. They were exiled ideologues of the Muslim Brotherhood from Syria or Egypt, battle-scarred North African veterans of Afghanistan, Bosnia or Chechnya.
Benyettou was 23 when he was arrested here in January. His look was more ragged Rasta than mean mujahedin: thick glasses, unruly long curls spilling out of his turban, high-top gym shoes beneath his robes. His main street credential was having a brother-in-law who was arrested for extremist activity here in 1998.
Benyettou allegedly formed an autonomous cell, bringing together friends from high school and soccer fields. He taught religion and Arabic at his apartment about five blocks from Salah's middle school, using the classes to screen and groom about 20 disciples. In 2003, the group participated in protests against the Iraq war and last year protested a French law banning Muslim head scarves in public schools.
Their behavior at the antiwar marches drew the interest of the intelligence division of the national police, whose agents snapped surveillance photos as a dozen youths knelt behind Benyettou in sidewalk prayer sessions.
As the group evolved, the youths spurned girlfriends and adopted rigorous Islamic lifestyles and ideas. Prosecutors allege that the youths discussed potential violence in France; defense lawyers see little evidence of that. Both sides agree they were obsessed with Iraq.
"Benyettou would talk to them about Abu Ghraib [prison], the abuse of Muslims, and say, 'What are you going to do about it?' " said Dominique Many, a lawyer for a suspected jihadi. "He was like a little guru who claimed to know the sacred texts. And he convinced them that the texts said it was their duty to go to Iraq to fight for the cause."
