A debt story completely degenerated in Ségala, a farmer received a suspended prison sentence.
“He spread the word throughout the country that I was a deadbeat.” “But sir, you are!” This exchange between a defendant and the prosecutor Chérif Chabbi alone sums up the case judged before the Rodez court recently…
At the helm, two men. They are farmers in Ségala, fathers of families and not really used to courtrooms. If they are there, it is because on June 19, 2023, the tone rose between them. To the point of violence.
Suspended prison, the debt will wait
After plowing work carried out two years previously, one of them decides to go to the other’s farm. Accompanied by his daughter and an apprentice, he comes to collect his dues. “He owed me €2,000, I had already been patient all this time,” he says. The problem is that his debtor doesn’t see it that way. “I couldn’t pay, I didn’t have the money, he knew it,” he defends himself.
The justice system accuses him of threatening his creditor using a box cutter – “The blade was broken, there was no risk,” he awkwardly retorts –, beatings or even a scene during which he allegedly drove his tractor into his counterpart’s vehicle… “I was very scared”, the latter confided, in front of the judge, when the defendant looked him in the eyes and said: “T ‘you added a lot anyway!’
He received a six-month suspended prison sentence. The debt is still not settled.
#French
