Four years in prison, one of which was suspended, and various obligations including that of receiving treatment and, above all, the aggravating circumstance of racist violence. The criminal court of Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain) did not show leniency towards Maxime B. and Adrien V., two 25-year-olds from Saint-Julien-en-Genevois (Haute-Savoie), tried in immediate appearance for acts of aggravated violence, which occurred on Wednesday, June 26 in Cessy in Ain, resulting in a total temporary incapacity (ITT), more than 8 days. Their victim? Mourad B., 37, still bears the scars of the attack: broken nose, multiple fractures, swollen face, and other less visible after-effects that have yet to be assessed.
Despite his physical and mental state, he wanted to be present at the hearing, emphasizes his lawyer Ilyacine Maallaoui, who denounces the “criminal” intent of the attackers. “My client was beaten up, at the foot of his building, while he was unconscious from the first blow.” Mourad B., with a long beard and an eye still badly damaged, had a lucky escape. The presence that evening of a neighbor who filmed the scene was not unrelated and may have saved his life? “When they left the pizzeria, I was at home. They were drunk, they were screaming. It didn’t stop,” says the victim.
“They wanted to leave me for dead”
When he sees that “they are hot” and causing a nuisance in the street, Mourad decides to address them from his apartment window in order to calm them down. But the insults fly: “I’m going to fuck your mother. Come down if you’re a man. This is France. Dirty raghead!” So he does it… armed with a 20 cm blade: “For me, they’re animals. They were rabid. I’m not used to seeing people who drink,” the victim confided in court.
“Why the knife? Why didn’t you call the police?” the president asks him. “There are things you can’t explain,” Mourad replies. What happened next? He says he doesn’t remember anything. The first blow knocks him out. On the video – very impressive – broadcast in the courtroom, we can hear his head hitting the front door of the building with each blow.
The man is not ready to forgive, despite the sincere apologies made by his attackers: “They wanted to leave me for dead. If the lady (the neighbor) had not been there, I would no longer be here.” Sheepish, heads bowed in their box, the accused admit the facts but initially deny the racist nature of the attack: “I am really ashamed of what happened,” confides Maxime B., an employee in a construction company.
A severe sanction
At his side, Adrien V., a bodybuilder by trade, with the physique of a mover, ends up admitting the words uttered upon seeing the video: “I don’t know why I said that. It’s not my nature.” The facts are there, however, overwhelming. He justifies the surge of violence by the presence of the knife: “I was scared. There was alcohol too… Even if that doesn’t excuse anything.”
Their evening had already started badly at the restaurant, thrown out by the owner of a pizzeria, following rude remarks made at the table against a waitress of Asian origin. “As far as I’m concerned, I accept responsibility but not the racist insults,” Maxime B. insisted. Their lawyer, Olivier Chourlin, addressing the presiding judge, asked for leniency, after the prosecutor had requested four years of imprisonment: “At no time do the elements in the case show that they wanted to take the victim’s life. You have to judge young people who have seriously slipped up, but not people who are violent out of habit.” He was ultimately not heard: “The requested sanction seems extremely severe to me,” the lawyer concluded.
