Twenty-eight seconds of violence. The video shows an individual lying in a gutter, being punched and kicked by several men. Above, a person films while others stir up the mob: “Fuck him!” “Come on guys, let’s kill him”. A young girl laughs at the situation.
Since the evening of Sunday, July 24, 2022, in Verzeille, a small village in Aude, Hans N., 26, has been followed by a psychologist, and must take treatment for stress and anxiety to help him sleep. The young delivery driver, born in Guadeloupe and living in a nearby village, has been on sick leave for a long time. For months, he has been impatiently awaiting the trial of his attackers, postponed several times, scheduled for Wednesday, September 4 at the Carcassonne court.
Of the fifteen men who attacked him that evening, three are due to appear in court for “intentional violence followed by total incapacity for work (ITT) not exceeding eight days committed by several people and with the use or threat of a weapon”. Among them, Yannis A., 22, a resident of Verzeille, law student and rugby player at US Carcassonne, and Ludovic B., 48, a hospital worker, but also vice-president of the Verzeille festival committee and second deputy mayor of the town. The last accused, Kevin E., 23, living in a neighbouring village, is a security guard.
Arm pain
During the investigation, the hearings of nearly twenty witnesses, including The World was able to take note of, have made it possible to retrace the events of that night in July 2022. But their interpretation diverges depending on the point of view: for some, it was just a village brawl, against a backdrop of alcohol consumption and national paranoia around syringe attacks that summer; for others, the racist nature of the attack (not retained by the Carcassonne public prosecutor’s office, which did not respond to our requests) is beyond doubt.
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This Sunday evening, nearly 300 people are present for the annual village festival. Around 11 p.m., the first malaise occurs. One of the participants is seized with chest pain. The firefighters are notified, but the symptoms quickly fade. “Everyone has insinuated [une piqûre]. We looked, but we saw no traces.”assures one of the firefighters. As they leave, a 14-year-old boy and his father come to see them. The young man says he felt a pain in his arm, like the point of a needle. But nothing serious, apparently.
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