A nebulous argument turns into a kidnapping: two brothers burst into the restaurant where their sister worked, causing an Amber Alert across Quebec. After a short physical altercation involving employees of the establishment, the teenager was allegedly forced into a vehicle in July 2021.
Posted at 5:24 p.m.
The trial of two young men accused of kidnapping and sequestration began Tuesday in Montreal. A court order prevents us from naming the defendants in this case to protect the identity of the victim, who was 17 at the time of the alleged incident.
A video of the events that occurred in the restaurant was shown in the courtroom Tuesday.
It is July 26, 2021 and it is almost midnight. Nour* is at the cash register at the B12 Burger restaurant, located in Kirkland in the west of Montreal. A mundane day of work is coming to an end soon.
Rayan* and his big brother Karim* took turns showing up at the B12 Burger restaurant, according to the Crown's evidence. A tense discussion with their sister leads to a physical altercation with the latter. Employees of the restaurant and the adjacent business get involved.
The teenager is forcibly dragged outside by one of the brothers, then pushed to the ground. One of the accused takes his cell phone and throws it on the ground. She is then placed in a car where two friends of the suspects are.
“She screamed for us to call 911. She seemed nervous, her face turned red,” Ali Ahmed said in his testimony. This colleague of the victim was present during the conflict, but knows nothing about the origin of the argument.
One of the brothers – the tallest – would have taken him by the shoulder to keep him away from the teenager during the altercation, according to this employee's version of the facts.
The victim ends up in the back of a vehicle. The event triggered an AMBER alert at the time, prompting the two suspects to take their sister to the police station.
His sister “watched” by a friend
Another young man, a friend of the two accused, also testified. He was outside the building in the car waiting for the victim at the time of the argument.
It was one of the two accused who allegedly asked him to “go take a look at his sister.” »
He told the court that he did not know the reason for the conflict. He also added that he did not see the physical altercation between the younger sister and her brothers.
He accepts without asking for further explanation on the reasons behind this request. “I don’t remember the reason. They were worried about her. It didn’t seem abnormal to me,” he explained on Tuesday.
Driver pleads guilty
The driver who came to “help” the two brothers on the evening of July 26, 2021 pleaded guilty on Tuesday morning, just before the start of the trial.
He was in a Nissan Altima vehicle and waiting in front of the establishment during the commotion in the restaurant.
The victim and her brother were then driven by this driver near the residence of the girl's father, according to the summary of facts filed during the plea.
Me Charles Doucet represents the public prosecutor and Me Gary Martin et Me Louis Nicholas Coupal-Schmidt defends the two brothers. The trial presided over by judge Thierry Nadon is expected to last a week.
