A “surge of violence” described as “bestial”: the prosecution requested 15 to 17 years in prison against actor Saïd Bogota, known for his roles in “Taxi 5” and “Pattaya”, accused of having kidnapped, kidnapped and attempted to murder a 17-year-old teenager in December 2018. The short actor’s defense pleaded a lifetime of rejection because of his disability and challenged the premeditation.
“We understood that it was a one-way ticket” for death: for Advocate General François Camard, Saïd Bogota, “instigator” of the crime, attempted to premeditiously kill the companion of one of his former girlfriends . The magistrate did not however clear customs the two “henchmen” who helped the actor to commit the crime. He required respectively 10 to 12 years and 12 to 15 years in prison against those who acted “with full knowledge of the facts”.
A crescendo violence
Saïd Bogota has been appearing since September 13 before the Assize Court of Essonne as the main accused in a tragic case born of jealousy in love. In December 2018, he kidnapped Paul *, a 17-year-old apprentice mechanic who is dating one of his ex, which “(him) angers, blinded by love,” he admitted last week.
After his kidnapping, the teenager is held in a basement of a building where Saïd Bogota and his two alleged accomplices subjected him to numerous abuses, including jets of acid and tear gas in the face. Worried by a neighbor who is surprised by the noise, the kidnappers transport him, blinded and having difficulty breathing, in an isolated field, going “crescendo” in violence, scolded the Advocate General.
“The premeditation does not emerge from this file”
Two flashball shots “at close range” hit him in the head, recalled the magistrate. Subsequently, Saïd Bogota confessed to having struck some twenty tows with the tow hook on the victim’s skull; the target body part characterizing the homicidal intent according to the prosecution. The teenager claims to have heard Saïd Bogota get angry: “Now that he has seen my face, he must be finished.” It was then sprayed with gasoline and set on fire.
The comedian briefly confessed Wednesday to having wanted to kill the teenager while he was fleeing, before returning to this confession two days later. “The premeditation (…) does not emerge from this file”, refuted his counsel, Me Sarah Mauger-Poliak, who considers that the blows “were carried in a movement of anger”.
A verdict this Tuesday
“He was not targeting so much a rival as his helpless rage in the face of a fate that is his”, according to the lawyer, who recalled the mockery of which the small actor “vacillating, feverish, that we know so fragile Has been the subject throughout his life. Even from this famous girlfriend, who “was ashamed of him” and refused to be seen in his company. “He wanted to believe that, for once, someone loved him for what he was” and therefore experienced this rupture as an ultimate betrayal, argued the lawyer.
On Tuesday, the defendants will have the last word, before the court withdraws to deliberate. The verdict is expected during the day.