A role that he disputes, half-heartedly conceding “small favors rendered to a friend”, Richard Pujol. A loyal friend who, in the morning, testified in his favor from the Lannemezan prison where the former robber, convicted in 2017 for a last failed armed robbery against a jewelry store in Dordogne, is serving his last sentence.
The editorial team advises you
“He was more of a party buddy. I didn’t do anything illegal with him except take cocaine,” says Richard Pujol, 55, of the “Yougo” who spent more than 30 years in prison. In 2008, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison like El Shennawy (who, unsurprisingly, did not come to testify) for the two robberies of the Caisse d’Épargne in Pontacq and the Crédit Agricole in Pavie.
“He has nothing to do with the robberies”
“It’s possible that I went to his house with Mr. El Shennawy but it was to party,” continues Richard Pujol, who wants to exonerate Mastrapovic. “I don’t know why he didn’t show up in 2008.” [au procès]”He did nothing serious. He has nothing to do with the robberies,” assures the faithful friend. Moreover, Richard Pujol believes that he himself has nothing to do with this affair, speaking of “a miscarriage of justice.”
The editorial team advises you
President Gilles Neyrand then mentions his criminal record and his “fifteen or so mentions, including three in the assizes”. “Were they all miscarriages of justice?” he replies, teasing. “No, not the last time…” whispers Pujol, an affable man who concludes his speech with a “with pleasure”. A rare formula in a courtroom.
“I haven’t seen him for twenty years. He’s lost weight…” the accused reacted about the man he called “Bratko”, “little brother” in the Slavic language.
“He didn’t talk to me about his business”
“Richard Pujol was my friend but he didn’t talk to me about his business. I admit to having provided him with 3 or 4 telephone chips [les gendarmes en recensent 30] “But what he did with it, I don’t know,” Mastrapovic persists.
As for Shennawy, for whom he found a cache and a shotgun, according to the police, he “just thought it was a friend of his, I didn’t think he was doing robberies…” The man was then listed as a serious crime offender and subject to an arrest warrant after an escape.
The editorial team advises you
Faced with the charges brought against him by investigators from the Pau research section, the sixty-year-old does not give in. Even if it means rewriting a bit of the history that has passed for twenty years. His only mistake, he admits, was agreeing to go and pick up the two robbers in Gers on November 26, 2004, after their third attack.
“I don’t like guns.”
“In this robbery, I was the spare wheel. Something went wrong and they called me. But I wasn’t planned for the program,” he analyzes “in hindsight,” formally denying his participation in this criminal association.
On the eve of the verdict expected this Wednesday, Mastrapovic insists: “I don’t like weapons. I don’t like violence. But if I helped in this robbery, in one way or another, I ask for forgiveness.”
“He makes me lie on the ground with my hands on my head.”
Twenty years after the events, David has not forgotten anything about that November 9, 2004. Through his testimony, the jurors can gauge the impact of this outbreak of violence that these armed attacks represent in the lives of those who are confronted with them. “I was 19 years old at the time, I was carefree,” said this victim of the second attack on the Caisse d’Épargne branch in Pontacq on Tuesday in court. “I arrived at the bank at closing time. I went in and saw someone come out of the counter with a hood and point a gun at me. At the time, I didn’t realize it. He made me lie on the ground, my hands on my head. It took a very long time…” he continued. David and a bank employee then found themselves locked in the vault. “At the time, I wasn’t aware of what was happening. But I was scared,” says the man who also has a heavy memory of the 2008 trial. “It was very impressive. It was in court that I realized what I had experienced. But it’s at my age, 39, that I’m more sensitive to all that,” David confides. Today, he only expects one thing from this trial: “To move on, to turn the page.”
Related News :