the essential
The Albi criminal court sentenced six defendants aged 21 to 32 this Thursday for their involvement, to different degrees, in the riots that occurred in June 2023 in the Cantepau district. Several public buildings and vehicles had been burned or ransacked.
The magistrates of the Albi criminal court rendered their decision this Thursday evening after two hours of deliberation. The six defendants tried in the Cantepau riots trial were found guilty and sentenced to sentences of up to 4 years in prison.
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Three of them, however, benefited from a partial acquittal, as requested by the prosecutor Stéphanie Bazart, their presence on one of the two sites targeted by the rioters having not been proven by the video surveillance images.
AM, 31 years old and already 14 times on his record, was found to be a repeat offender. Described by two people as one of the “ringleaders”, he received the heaviest sentence. He admitted his presence at the scene on the night of the incident, explaining that he had gone out “to smoke a joint”, but completely denied any participation in the damage. During the hearing, his lawyer Alexandre Martin denounced “profound contradictions” regarding the video surveillance images, which according to him do not allow his client to be identified. At the end of the trial, he denounced “an extremely severe sentence” and a “slightly political” decision which he plans to appeal.
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Filmed a mortar in hand
Two other defendants, AD, 21 years old, and SB, 30 years old, were sentenced to 3 years in prison with continued detention. The first, assisted by Me Fabienne Bex, was tried as a repeat offender and admitted his participation in the riots, claiming to have been paid to overturn a car. The second, also designated as one of the ringleaders, was filmed holding a fireworks mortar in his hand and broke the camera. At the hearing, his lawyer Philippe Pressecq recalled that his client had already spent more than a year in pre-trial detention. “It’s already a high price to pay.” He in turn denounces “an unreasonable decision” and plans to appeal.
The three other defendants, TA (29 years old), TB (32 years old) and IM (23 years old), were sentenced to mixed sentences ranging from 2 to 3 years in prison, including 1 year accompanied by a probationary suspension with work obligations and to repair the damage caused.
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In her pleading, Me Emmanuelle Franck, TB’s lawyer, returned to the reason for the rioters’ “acting out”, “a point little mentioned in this case”: the story of young Nahel, 17 years old, killed by the shooting of a police officer in the Paris region on June 27, 2023. His death sparked riots across France. Events “reprehensible in form but legitimate in substance”, according to the lawyer.
His colleague Cécile Coutouly, who assisted IM, also spoke of the “group effect”, several young people having “allowed themselves to be drawn into” this violence without really being able to explain their motivations.
On the side of the civil parties, the State Judicial Agency and the La Poste group requested a referral on civil interests, the time to quantify and justify their requests for damages. The court set the hearing for next June and also followed requests from Tarn Habitat and the city of Albi, ordering the defendants to reimburse at this stage a total of more than €65,000.
