Dying on the sidewalk
On March 8, 2022 at 5:45 p.m., the police were called for an unconscious man on the sidewalk on rue des Visitandines, in the Marolles district of Brussels. Yacine M’rabet is shirtless. His body has traces of iron on the belly and chest. He has torn skin. Hospitalized, he died within half an hour. The autopsy will reveal iron burns in the genitals as well as ammonia burns.
He is known as a consumer of cocaine. He participated in sales activities in the neighborhood and the building he lived. It was a “nanny”: his apartment, on the 8th floor of an HLM tower, served as a storage place for the goods.
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The building is a high place of deal, day and night. At the time, two groups were active. The first, long established and led by people in the neighborhood, sells cannabis. The second, led by exteriors from the Anneessens district, arrived recently. He widened cocaine sales.
The two groups are hierarchical: “bosses”, “managers” responsible for the control and payment of sellers and the organization of points of sale, “sellers”, “watchers” and “nurses”. The first would have as a boss, the uncle of Ahmed El Batouti, the youngest of the accused. The uncle would be in Morocco. Ahmed El Batouti, despite his 17th birthday, is presented by several people as the pivotal element between the two groups. He would also be one of the “bosses”.
Repeated flights
The investigation, and in particular the hearing of relatives of Yacine M’rabet, showed that the latter, in whom in particular was found a Crack pipe, had, in the previous months, forced a closed box in which were drugs.
The victim had heated the trunk containing cocaine to be able to inhale smoke. Cocaine had been destroyed, causing a debt that the victim could not pay.
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More recently, cocaine was kept in a trunk with two holes at the back to fix it on the wall. Yacine M’rabet had used a lighter to heat the inside of the trunk and to be able to inhale the smoke that came out. Which had led to the destruction of the goods and a debt that he could not pay. These facts had earned him reprisals following which the police had intervened.
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At the end of April 2022, the police obtained information according to which the two accused and four “managers” of the first group of traffickers were involved in the death of Yacine M’rabet. The six young men will be arrested two months later.
Michaël Pindeville admitted to having struck the victim. He reported abuse: iron burns, ammonia, anal penetrations with objects, deodorant burns and lighter. He admitted having descended the body. Ahmed El Battouti admitted having used the iron and explained that the mobile was the destruction of cocaine in the trunk.
But they refused to give the names of the other people present in Yacine M’rabet’s apartment where the tortures were committed. The four “managers” benefited from a dismissal.
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