After three days of trial at the Gard Assize Court, the shooter was sentenced to 12 years in prison. His accomplice leaves with 4 years in prison, three of which are suspended.
“For three days I have been singled out as saying I am a drug trafficker. But I am a victim”. For this third and final day of trial in this case of attempted assassination and criminal association at the Gard Assize Court, the floor is given to the victims. On the night of January 9, 2022, two friends, a young man and a young woman, were shot twice with a shotgun during an ambush. One of them was injured in the forearm and the other in the leg.
A meeting place that questions
According to the main accused, he met the victim via a fake profile on Snapchat, posing as a cannabis buyer. A version contested by the two victims, who explain that their presence in this dead end, in the heights of Nîmes, was the result of chance. “I used to come here to go for motorcycle rides, and since we were waiting for our food order to be ready, I rode here while waiting. But when Sophie* told me that the order was ready, we decided to turn around, and that’s when I ran into this girl at the entrance to the cul-de-sac”explains Hakim*, one of the victims. This girl is the second accused. She used tear gas against them, before her accomplice shot them.
A settling of scores against a backdrop of drug trafficking?
But what has questioned the court since the start of the trial is the presence of 50 kg of cannabis in the victim’s trunk. “It was for a birthday”he justifies himself. “But why are you the one carrying the drugs?”then questions Christian Pasta, president of the court. “I was asked”he answers simply. As for the fact that he is associated with the accused in possible drug trafficking, again the victim denies it. “We met at a friend’s wedding. He was the bride and groom’s driver. We talked afterwards because I wanted to hire his services for my sister’s wedding”he explains to the court. “Why would he want revenge on you then?”continues the president. “I don’t know, maybe because I’m the only guy from a neighborhood he knows and that’s why he accuses me of being the perpetrator of the burglary”. As for the second victim, she explains that she is a collateral victim, unaware of this story of meetings against a background of drug trafficking, even if she recognizes that at the time, she was a drug user. “But the court must not take shortcuts. It has never been directly or indirectly linked to any drug trafficking”underlines Me Touzellier, his lawyer.
“If he had wanted to scare, he could have shot in the air”
For his part, Me Scherrer, Hakim’s counsel, insists in his pleading on the notion of an assassination attempt of which his client was the victim. “The accused tells us that he just wanted to scare. But as the president pointed out, if he had wanted to scare, he could have fired in the air or used the blank weapon he had at home, but this is not the case, which clearly shows a desire to kill.he specifies. But for Me Caron, the accused’s lawyer, another option is possible: “If he had wanted to kill, he could have positioned himself in front of the victim, and not come from the back of the car”.
At the end of this trial, the attorney general requested 18 years in prison for the shooter and five years in prison with three years suspended for the co-accused, whom he considers did not know that her ex-boyfriend friend intended to use a weapon. “When you want to manipulate someone into participating in an ambush, you don’t say that you are armed and that you are going to shoot someone. Otherwise she might refuse.”he specifies. After three hours of deliberation, the jurors finally decided on sentences of 12 years in prison for the shooter and 4 years including three years suspended for his accomplice. A sentence which will surely be placed under an electronic bracelet, to the great disappointment of the victims.
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