This was one of the issues in the trial. The jurors of the Assize Court of the North, in Douai, recognized, Friday, the racist nature of the murder of Karim El Barni, shot twice with buckshot, on January 12, 2018, in the commune of Saint-Waast-la -Valley, near Valenciennes. With this aggravating circumstance, the accused, Ludovic L., was sentenced to 25 years of criminal detention.
In this case, the investigation had revealed that the latter had called several of his relatives in the minutes following the murder and made racist remarks to explain his gesture. The two men used to rub shoulders, but their last meeting degenerated against a background of alcohol, according to the accused who constantly mentioned an accidental shooting during the trial.
“Welcome signal”
In a press release, SOS Racisme, which was a civil party alongside the family of Karim El Barni, evokes a conviction which “sends a welcome signal”. “It is a verdict of unprecedented firmness”, according to Me Guillaume Traynard, the association’s lawyer during the trial.
“After the conviction on appeal, in October, of the murderer of Saïd El Barkaoui to 20 years’ imprisonment for racist murder, believes Dominique Sopo, president of SOS Racisme, this new conviction indicates that French justice is once again taking the measurement of the racist dimension of the particularly heinous crime of which Karim El Barni was the victim. »