On the other hand, the accused, now 50 years old, refuses to give the name of his accomplice.
“It was a period when I was entrenched in delinquency”. This Monday, January 20, 2025, in the dock of the Assize Court, Karim, now 50 years old, says he is a completely different man. After having denied for almost twenty years his participation in a series of armed robberies of nine gas stations in Gard, Hérault and Vaucluse, this Monday, he admitted the facts. And this, after more than twenty years on the run.
“Give the cash”
This file dates back between December 2003 and February 2004. Karim and another accomplice whose name he will not give, committed six robberies in gas stations. For the other three, the accused, defended by Me Hélène Mordacq, admits to having acted alone. “I must have been in need of drugs”he responds to Isabelle Tourn, the general counsel, when she questions him about this change in operation. As for the unfolding of these robberies, the different hearings of witnesses suggest the same process. “It was around 6 p.m. There were two individuals on a motorcycle, gloved and hooded. They put some gas at the pump and when it was time to pay, the passenger took out a gun and said to me, 'Give the cash register. I gave him what I had”explains Nadine*, a former cashier at a gas station in Bollène, represented by Me Mallaury Font, of the Lyon bar. A traumatic episode, as the ex-employee explains, which resulted in a six-month work stoppage, then part-time therapy for nine months. “I'm really sorry”, blurts out the accused.
Sentenced for a robbery… in Switzerland
In the end, the total of these thefts amounts to almost 3,000 euros. The investigators were able to find the path of Karim and a first supposed accomplice thanks to the testimonies, but also to the motorcycle used during the robberies. During investigations, the police discovered that the latter had been stolen a few days earlier in Alès by a third individual. Arrested in the context of a completely different case, he admitted several thefts including that of the two-wheeler. He explains during his police custody that he exchanged this motorcycle for 200 grams of cannabis resin to Karim. The helmets, as well as the motorcycle keys, but also the weapon, which turns out to be fake, will finally be found in a car in Switzerland, while Karim and his supposed accomplice are arrested for a jewelry store theft and… a gas station robbery. It was the same year, 2003. They received five months in prison for these acts.
-So many elements which will lead to the conviction, in his absence, of the fifty-year-old, in 2014 to twenty years of imprisonment for the robberies. A conviction to which he opposes, hence this new trial in the Nîmes Assize Court. The second individual will receive 8 years in prison, then twelve years on appeal before being acquitted in 2017 after an appeal to the Court of Cassation.
Left for 17 years in Algeria
Except that Karim, after his release in Switzerland in 2007, left for Algeria. Since then, he explains that he has rebuilt his life. “I started my business in hydraulics, I got married and I have two children. I have always used my hands to fly. In Algeria, I realized that they could do miracles”he explains to the court. A professional reconversion which nevertheless challenges Christian Pasta, president of the court: “In 2014, a European arrest warrant was issued against you. Nobody told you about it?” “No Mr. President. The only time I heard about it was when I was arrested in Algeria for drunk driving (where he will be sentenced to six months in prison for manslaughter because his cousin, present in the vehicle, died during this accident, Editor's note) –. The Algerian court asked France three times to send my file, but they never received it.”he emphasizes. According to him, he would have been acquitted during this trial, without a case.
Finally, it was in 2024, during a trip to Spain that Karim was arrested by Interpol. Since then, he has been incarcerated at the Villepinte remand center, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. The trial continues this Tuesday, including the hearing of Karim, who will have to explain the facts with which he is accused. He faces up to twenty years of criminal imprisonment.
