A 27-year-old man appears before Criminal Court judges at the start of the week. Accused mainly of rape and aggravated violence against three women, he faces 20 years in prison. Who is he really? The angel described by those close to him? Or the demon portrayed by the victims? Maybe both…
This Monday June 24 and Tuesday June 25, the five judges of the Criminal Court of Saint-Étienne have to judge El Fazar Saïd
, 27 years old, provisionally detained for almost two years. The man, originally from Mayotte, is accused of rape, violence aggravated by two circumstances and attempted extortion by violence, against three women on the mornings of December 3 and 4, 2022.
Three women aged 54, 48 and 35, who were going to work early, and who had the misfortune to cross paths with this man, two near the Minimes church, the third near the Square des Martyrs of the Resistance.
Facts recognized at the start of the debates
If El Fazar Saïd has long refuted, then simply admitted, part of the facts, his first statement before the judges and the victims at the opening of the debates this Monday morning will have surprised: “I do not want to contest the victims’ statements. I acknowledge the facts. I would like to ask them for forgiveness and apologize.”
If he manages to recognize the facts, the day of debates will not have been enough to provide explanations as to their motivations. Black anger against his father, too much alcohol these two evenings, or even spell are put forward by the man at the helm. Reality or defense strategy?
I can’t believe he did these things. It is not him. She is a very beautiful person.
During this first day of debates, two faces of El Fazar Saïd were presented. The first, that of an angel. His partner at the time, with whom he was to marry, speaks of an ideal companion, hardworking, hardworking at home, respectful and gentle. “I can’t believe he did these things. It’s not him. He’s a very beautiful person,” she testifies on the stand. His educator supports him in this sense: “When I followed him at home, he was more the attacked than the aggressor. He is someone who is honest, helpful, reliable. He is a good boy.” Qualities that are the opposite of the facts alleged, notes President Chalbos.
The father’s trial
El Fazar Saïd did not have an easy childhood. Abandoned before his birth by his father in Mayotte, mistreated by his mother, he grew up with his pain and the love of his grandmother. At the age of 9, he was sent to France to join his father, who saw in him the means to receive social assistance. Left with a friend in Clermont-Ferrand a few months later, the young boy followed a rather successful schooling until he was 15. But the bill for a canteen meal received by his father puts him beside himself. He comes to pick up his son from class and forcibly takes him to the doors of a home, only to abandon him again.
It is this father, described as evil in person throughout the morning, and whom he has not seen for almost 10 years, that El Fazar Saïd came to find in Roanne, on November 30, 2022. “I promised my grandmother that I would try to reconnect,” he explains, looking dejected.
“We see you walking without staggering on the video surveillance images, you are on a scooter, you are sending text messages… You were obviously not totally drunk.” Eric Chalbos
(President of the Criminal Court)
The other, more demonic face of the young man is that drawn by the three victims. Someone “determined, who knew very well what he wanted” for one, with “black eyes” for another. Friday December 3, three days after his arrival in Roanne, El Fazar Saïd can no longer stand his father’s environment. He decides to take his mind off things by partying. At a nightclub in the city center, he meets a woman over 50 years old. But the latter ignores him and remains deaf to his numerous messages in the early morning. A few minutes later, the young man commits his first attack on a woman in the street. Two will follow in barely 24 hours, including a rape.
Angel or demon ?
Facts that he recognizes in court, which he tries to explain away with anger and alcohol, mainly. “We see you walking without staggering on the video surveillance images, you are on a scooter, you are sending text messages… You were obviously not totally drunk,” the president of the Criminal Court points out to him. The lawyers for the civil parties, then the general advocate, will move in this direction, highlighting the various contradictions in the accused’s statements. Behind the anger, they sense latent frustration. So, angel or demon?
This Tuesday, psychological and psychiatric experts will perhaps provide answers through their reports, to better understand what pushed El Fazar Saïd to take action. He risks 15 years for the rape and 5 years for the aggravated violence, or 20 years of criminal imprisonment. Verdict this Tuesday late afternoon.
Pascal Jacquet
Our charter authorizes us to publish the identity of a person accused in a sexual matter, even before the trial or its verdict.
Recall of facts
On December 3, 2022, around 6:10 a.m., route de Lyon, towards the Minimes church, El Fazar Saïd attacked a 54-year-old Costelloise, a caregiver at home and at the Roanne hospital, who was on her way to work by bike. She is approached by a man on a scooter who stops her and becomes very insistent, even threatening. To the point that she drops her bike and runs away.
In the same place, a few dozen minutes later, this time it was on foot that he attacked a 48-year-old care worker who was going to a patient’s home. She is dragged behind a grove, before being forced to perform fellatio and manages to free herself to avoid sodomy. These cries will alert a passerby and put the attacker to flight. The next morning, around 6:30 a.m., when a 35-year-old nursing assistant in a nursing home had just crossed the Coteau bridge, she was attacked by a man she had just passed while walking. He hits her several times while trying to take her towards the Square des Martyrs de la Résistance. She manages to escape and takes refuge with the occupants of a neighboring building.
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