the victim hit by five bullets according to the medical examiner, follow the 2nd day of the trial

10 h : The two accused stare at Lauriane Georgeton during her testimony. Delphine Thibierge, president of the Assize Court, points out the technical difficulties in analyzing these sound files: “you recognized almost no one, we can’t identify anyone with certainty?“. “That’s it, exactly” replies Mrs. Georgeton. “The quality of the audio files did not allow us to go further“.

Mr. Basbas refused to take votes. If he had said yes, it might have changed my conclusions.

Lauriane Georgeton,

scientific police engineer in Paris

9 h 50 : The medical examiner’s testimony is complete. The court calls, by videoconference, Ms. Lauriane Georgeton, forensic engineer in Paris. “I was asked to compare the voices of 21 audio files with the voices of seven individuals, including MM. Basbas, Ghezali“says the expert.”I used software to create a voice model with telephone interceptions, police custody interviews and voice samples.“.

9 h 45 : A photo of the T-shirt worn by Rabah Khaldi at the time of the incident is shown. A red jersey, on which we can distinguish darker red spots, blood stains. Mr. Khaldi, present on the civil parties’ bench, cannot look at this photo and looks away, putting his head in his hands.

9 h 40 : Me Spatafora, one of the lawyers for the civil parties, in particular for Mr. Khaldi, questions Dr. Grignard about the physical and moral after-effects caused by the shooting. “Two days after the incident, Mr. Khaldi told me that he was having hallucinations and flashes“said the doctor.”He refused psychological follow-up. Two years later, I saw him again and he told me he still had flashes, without having gone to see a psychologist.“. A permanent functional deficit in the shoulder was also noted.

9 h 35 : Mr. Grignard now arrives at the medical examination of Mr. Rabah Khaldi, Houcine Hakkar’s passenger, carried out at the Besançon University Hospital on March 11, 2020. Two bullets hit Mr. Khaldi: one in the left shoulder and another having impacted him in the lower back, to the right, and having damaged the abdomen. “A bullet, the one that hit the shoulder, could not be removed by doctors” indicates Sébastien Grignard.

The shot to the left shoulder was not fatal. The one that hit the abdomen could have been done without treatment.

Sébastien Grignard,

forensic doctor

9 h 30 : Etienne Manteaux, general counsel, takes the floor. “Was Houcine Hakkar still alive when help arrived?” he asks. “Yes, he was unconscious” reveals Sébastien Grignard. “He was losing a lot of blood. He died within a few minutes despite emergency resuscitation attempts.“.

9 h 25 : Me Jérôme Pichoff, lawyer for the mother and sisters of Houcine Hakkar, gets up to ask questions to Dr. Grignard. “How many of these injuries are fatal?“. “The head wound is fatal, those in the abdomen could not have been fatal with rapid treatment, the others are not lethal” analyzes the practitioner.

9 h 20 : In their box, the two accused, Elias Basbas (24 years old) and Melk Ghezali (31 years old) did not change their attitude. The two men remain with their heads down and stare at the ground, surrounded by six heavily armed, hooded police officers.

9 h 15 : “These examinations made it possible to say that the death of Mr. Hakkar is directly linked to gunshots, due to shots in the skull and abdominal cavity.” assures Mr. Grignard, who specifies that three bullets were found in the victim’s body.

9 h 10 : A diagram is projected in the courtroom, showing the locations of five “wounds”, where Houcine Hakkar was struck by the bullets. The victim was hit five times by : one in the lower left back, another on the top of the left buttocks, a third at the top of the right buttocks, a fourth on the right hand and a last one in the head.

Metallic elements were found in the skull.

Sébastien Grignard,

forensic doctor

9 h 03 : The hearing resumes at the Doubs Assize Court. Doctor Sébastien Grignard, forensic pathologist, is called to the stand by . “In this case, I intervened twice, for the autopsy of Mr. Hakkar’s body, on March 10, 2020, and for the examination of Mr. Rabah Khaldi” explains the professional.

The second day of the trial of the alleged assassins of Houcine Hakkar is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

According to the program of the Assize Court, the passenger in the victim’s car, who survived the deadly attack that killed Houcine, should testify. Different experts (forensic doctor, ballistics expert) should also give their testimony. New witnesses, some belonging to Besançon drug trafficking clans, will be heard at the end of the day.

What happened on the first day of the trial?

Monday December 16 began at the Doubs Assize Court, in Besançon, the trial of the alleged assassins of Houcine Hakkar. Elias Basbas, Melk Ghezali and Mohamed Mordjane (on the run), members of a group of drug traffickers, the Picardie clan, are accused of having mistakenly killed this 22-year-old mechanic after a chase. They would have had the wrong target.

At the opening of the first day of the trial, Melk Ghezali admitted the facts with which he is accused, while Elias Basbas denied outright. The court then heard a first witness, Patrick Melon, director of the investigation launched into this case, who for several hours detailed his investigations and answered questions from the president of the Assize Court and the lawyers.

Audio and video recordings were played during the trial, including Rabah Khaldi’s poignant distress call to law enforcement. Mr. Khaldi, a passenger in Houcine Hakkar’s car at the time of the events, was with the victim at the time of his death. He survived despite suffering gunshot wounds. At the end of the day, Houcine Hakkar’s two sisters, Abir and Wabissa, both civil parties, were heard by the court and gave poignant testimony.

► (Re)read the complete progress of the first day of the trial.

• Mohamed Mordjane : head of the network of drug traffickers, known as the “Picardie” clan, he is still on the run.
• Milk Ghezali : On the evening of the tragedy, he was driving the car that chased Houcine Hakkar’s car. Melk Ghezali was arrested in Spain in May 2021, then extradited to France.
• Elias Basbas : he is the alleged shooter who coldly fired several bullets at Houcine Hakkar and also attempted to assassinate his passenger
  They are indicted for murder, attempted murder and complicity in attempted murder.

“Damn sir, we are going to die”: we summarize this tragic affair for you

In the spring of 2020, the drug traffickers’ war raged in Besançon. Two clans are competing for deal points in the Planoise district, the “de la tour” clan and the “Picardie” clan. As the weeks go by, clashes between rivals multiply. 10 injured. Until that evening, that of carefully planned revenge. The traffickers carry out the operation by trading on an encrypted network.

A week before confinement, on March 8, 2020 around 9 p.m., thinking they had spotted their target, two men chase a blue Mégane car on Avenue Siffert. The passenger fired multiple shots. The occupants of the Megane had time to alert the police. The recordings are chilling: “We’re being shot at!”, “We’re in a car, sir, hurry up, they’re behind us, it’s a red Mégane 5”, “Fuck, sir, we’re going to die, damn it, we’re we’re going to die, we’re going to die, sir.”

In the evening on the encrypted network, the traffickers will realize that they have killed the wrong person. An innocent man.

Already heavily condemned by the courts, the three men tried during this trial before the Doubs assizes face a sentence of life imprisonment.