By Le Figaro with AFP
Published
46 minutes ago,
Updated 5 minutes ago
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An Algerian, accused of the murder of a brewery employee in Villeurbanne in 2009 for a pack of cigarettes, is tried in his absence Tuesday before the Rhône Assize Court in Lyon, after having already been convicted for this murder in Algeria.
Le Figaro Lyon
It is a trial without accused which will be held this Tuesday before the Rhône Assize Court. And for good reason, the man accused of the murder of a brewery employee in Villeurbanne (Rhône) in 2009 for a pack of cigarettes has already been convicted for these acts in Algeria, where he is detained. Redouane Khoutir, aged 66, was sentenced to 20 years of criminal imprisonment in 2015 on the other side of the Mediterranean. He fled to his native country where he was arrested in 2013 for the shooting murder of Fouad Guessoum.
“What we want is a French decision. And let Algeria recognize this second decision”declared to AFP Me David Metaxas, lawyer for the victim’s family who will be able to “finally get some speaking time”. Me Metaxas regretted in 2015 the conditions in which the trial took place in Algeria, “without witnesses, without the civil parties, without the victims, without anyone being informed”. Still detained in Algeria, the accused will be tried in one day on Tuesday before the Assize Court in Lyon.
Killed for a pack of cigarettes
The facts date back to early September 2009. A 33-year-old woman entered a brasserie in Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, to buy a pack of cigarettes. Arriving at the time of closing of the establishment, the cash having already been withdrawn, it is refused. However, the customer insists. Redouane Khoutir, her companion, then enters to take her out, and then takes her to his home.
Quickly, the man returns alone to the brasserie to ask for the same pack of cigarettes for his friend, but is also refused by the waitress. Fouad Guessoum, 35, who takes care of cleaning in the establishment, asks him to leave and the two men argue verbally. Shortly after midnight, Redouane Khoutir returned to the brewery again, this time wearing a hood covering his face and with a revolver in his hand. He kills Fouad Guessoum with a bullet to the chest.
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At that time, Redouane Khoutir was on parole after serving a 20-year prison sentence for killing a police officer during a hold-up in 1984. On the run, subject to an international arrest warrant , he was arrested in Annaba, a seaside town in Algeria, then sentenced there, the country not extraditing its nationals.
