Friday, October 18, the trial of the shootings at Chemin Bas d’Avignon began. Facts which date back to August 2022 and for which the fourteen defendants have continued to change their versions.
Was there pressure put on the defendants? In any case, this is the question that arises at the opening of the trial of the shootings at Chemin Bas d’Avignon this Friday, October 18. Because among the thirteen defendants present at the Nîmes criminal court – the fourteenth having refused to be extradited from the penitentiary center where he is incarcerated in the Paris region – many have changed their version of the facts about what happened on the 18th. August 2022.
A deal point at €50,000 per day
That evening, at around 9:50 p.m., several Kalashnikov shots rang out on Chemin Bas d’Avignon, with the aim of recovering the deal point. “estimated at €50,000 per day”specifies Jean-Michel Perez, president of the court. Although no injuries were reported, nearly nine gunshot impacts were noted on a collective building and several shell casings were found on site.
A very well orchestrated commando, where each of the defendants had a well-defined role. The old woman, two young people from Carpentras, were hired as “lookouts” in the neighborhood to scout out locations and explain how the deal point works. The next day, the day of the events, other men from Carpentras but also from Marseille joined the team. “We had to recover the deal point and install men to act as “bags” (the sellers)”explains one of the defendants.
“He wanted to take back all of Nîmes”
According to him, the investigator of this resumption of territory is Omar*. He was arrested the same evening, around 2:15 a.m. by the police as he was going to burn one of the cars involved in the attack. “He wanted to take back the Chemin-Bas, then the ZUP Nord and all of Nîmes”assures François*, another co-defendant. A lie according to Omar. “I had received orders from a guy who was in prison at the time. If I helped him organize the attack, he would erase my debt of €3,000”he explains on the stand.
He does not wish to communicate the identity of the sponsor for fear of reprisals. But for the president of the court, certain messages suggest that the mastermind of this project could be Akim*, one of the defendants sitting in the box. “August 16, 2022, you say that “it’s in two days”. What is it in two days? Knowing that it corresponds to the date of the attack”he asks her. “That? It was for him to do my laundry, there are specific days to collect the bag of laundry”he answers simply. As for the other messages indicating the arrival time of certain protagonists at Nîmes station on the day of the events or even to find out if he can find them “job fair” (young people recruited to take part in drug trafficking)? “It’s my friend, we’re laughing, it’s humor sir”.
Debts to be erased
Concerning the other defendants, Omar wants to be more talkative, at least during his custody. Because if at first, he clearly identifies the author of the shots, during the hearing, he is less certain. “Maybe it was him, I’m not sure.”he explains. His lawyer, Me Aubert, recalls that the alleged shooter made threats against him. “When he appeared before the investigating judge, he threatened to “burn his mother” if he did not change his version”reports the lawyer. Threats that his co-defendant denies, just as he denies his role in this affair. “However, on the surveillance videos, we can clearly see that the one holding the weapon is a black man. And among the defendants, you are the only one who matches this description”underlines the president of the court. But for the accused, this proves nothing.
New statements exonerating certain defendants
And Omar is not the only one to come back to these comments. Abdel*, who initially identified one of these co-defendants as the one who handed over the weapons, finally changed his version. “I don’t know why I said that, it was a lie”he told the court. Enough to make this young person’s council react. “Do you realize that through your lie you are implicating my client in a criminal matter?”lance Me Scherrer. “I regret it”he replies, head down.
Twists and turns which continue during the hearing of Khalid*, one of the Marseillais implicated. The latter who, from the beginning has affirmed that Yassin*, another Marseillais, was present during the attack on the Nîmes deal point, also comes back on his statements. “It was a big guy from Marseille who forced me to come to Nîmes that evening because I had a debt. But I didn’t want to say that it was him because I was afraid of reprisals. But now that he is dead, I can tell you.”he says. He was killed in October 2022 by gunfire in Marseille.
But here again, these new statements do not convince the president of the court: “Your DNA is present on the neck of the bottle found in the hotel room that Omar booked for this shooting”he says to this Marseillais, freshly exonerated by his fellow inmate. The answer is intended to be evasive. So many twists and turns that the court will try to unravel on Monday October 21, during the second day of the trial.
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