A judgment, more than 20 years after the facts. The Assize Court of Meurthe-et-Moselle condemned two Romanians on Friday to 25 years and 10 years’ imprisonment for the kidnapping and death in 2003 of a 29-year-old man who had been found in a ditch, ‘Abdomen mutilated with 23 wounds.
The victim, Philippe Charuel, salesperson’s father of a young girl, had been embarked in a black BMW by two men near Nancy station, on the night of February 19 to 20, 2003. His body had been discovered the next day , along a departmental road. The investigation had shown that two young prostitutes had declared that he had been bothered by Philippe Charuel.
The two accused, Vasile Ostas and Cristian Rad, a man and his nephew, aged 52 and 40, had already been sentenced in their absence in 2011 to 30 and 26 years’ imprisonment. They had finally been arrested in 2023, after a long run in Spain, where they had redone their lives, after a past of pimps in France.
At the statement of the verdict, the daughter of Vasile Ostas melted in tears before collapsing on the ground, prevented by the police from approaching the accused box. The father, he uttered insults in Romanian, his native language. “Go to show yourself,” he said, far from the regrets and apologies expressed before the jury withdraws to deliberate.
“All fire all flame”
The sentences pronounced are more lenient than those desired by the public prosecutor. “It cannot be considered less than 30 years. It should be sentenced to life imprisonment, “said the Advocate General, Stéphane Javet, against the principal accused.
This request for a perpetuity sentence had caused the ire of his lawyer, Éléonore Dupleix. “Why request it today?” She asked herself in front of the court during her pleading, recalling that her client was, this time, present at the trial, and had recognized the facts.
-While emphasizing the severity of the decision, against which she keeps the possibility of appealing, the penalist welcomed that she is below the requisitions and that pronounced in 2011. “This trial allowed her to express himself On the facts that were accused of and of helping justice to shed light on what had happened, ”she concluded.
His sister, Samira Boudiba, lawyer for the second accused, deemed “satisfactory” the sentence pronounced against his client, who represents less than half of that required by the public prosecutor or that arrested in 2011.
During her pleading, Me Samira Boudiba had urged the jurors to an introspection. “At 18”, the age of Cristian Rad at the time of the facts shortly after his arrival in France, “we put ourselves in danger, we are not aware of the danger, immerse yourself in your 18 years! “, She had started. “He was someone who had never left his village in Romania, who was all flame fire and who followed an uncle from his family. »»
The forties also recognized the facts, but disputed, during the five days of the trial, the use of a saber against the victim, rather evoking a “pipe”, or the will to kill him. Explanations that have not convinced the civil party. “Twenty-three wounds at the abdomen level, targeted on 15 cm around the liver (…) that demonstrates the relentlessness, barbarism” of which Philippe Charuel was the victim, estimated Me Sophie Godfrin-Ruiz. “If there had been empathy, the blows would have stopped. »»
