This Saturday, December 14, the accused were able to speak one last time, a few hours before the verdict. Two of them apologized while another, tried for complicity, proclaimed his innocence on the stand.
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The doors of the Nantes Judicial Court are exceptionally open this Saturday, December 14. The time for the verdict has come in the Nadir Marouf case.
This after weeks of long and intense debates to understand what led to the death of this 18-year-old young man, found tied up in his home.in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, in 2020. This during a burglary in the family apartment.
Four men, aged 34 to 63, are implicated in the case. Three of them are the main suspects, on trial for violent robbery leading to death. Then, another man is tried for complicity, suspected of having played a key role in the preparation and aftermath of the theft.
ALSO READ: Who killed young Nadir Marouf? Four accused before the Nantes Assize Court
This is considered by the civil parties as the “mastermind” of the theft during which Nadir was killed. He was actually a volunteer at the mosque where the young boy's stepfather was then deputy treasurer. According to the prosecution, this man was the only one who knew that he kept money from the mosque at home. This is what the three other accused were trying to steal, on the night of August 8 to 9, 2020.
Everyone had the opportunity to speak one last time on the stand this Saturday morning.
Before the Assize Court, two of the main suspects then apologized while the third recalled the poverty in which he lived, thus asking the jurors to be understanding.
As for the fourth man, he was content with a few clear words: “I'm sorry about Nadir, but I'm innocent.”
As a reminder, this Friday, December 13, the attorney general requested sentences ranging from 25 to 30 years in prison for the three main suspects and 18 years for the one accused of complicity. During her indictment, she also denounced a “slow, cold-blooded killing.”
This in a case where, according to this magistrate, “there will inevitably remain gray areas (in particular) on the place of each person in this disastrous commando.”
The verdict should fall late this Saturday afternoon.
The body of Nadir, 18, was found on August 9, 2020 at the family home in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, wrists and ankles tied, wounds on his body and a pillow on his face.
This macabre scene was discovered by a friend of the young man. At the time, the rest of Nadir's family was in Spain on vacation.
Later, the autopsy concluded that he died of asphyxiation. It was the DNA traces found on site and telephone studies which then allowed investigators to trace the three main suspects, arrested in the following months.
Against these three accused of Algerian nationality, the attorney general therefore requested, in addition to prison sentences, a definitive ban from French territory. “What the investigative work reveals is that we are not facing a burglary gone wrong, but a criminal project. she then declared in her indictment this Friday.
With Lucie Reynaud, journalist on site.
