“For the moment, things are still very vague,” said this Monday to 20 minutes, master Jean-Christophe Basson-Larbi. With his colleague Joshua Kafil, they represent a 41-year-old woman, mother of three children, and one of her 15-year-old daughters, who were taken into police custody over the weekend for “attempted murder” and “ aggravated violence.” On Saturday, a young woman was taken to hospital after receiving three stab wounds in the Tonkin district, in Villeurbanne, near Lyon, during a “general fight” which started from insults between teenage girls.
“This is a mother who simply wanted to protect her child,” assured the lawyers. But then, what really happened on Saturday in this district of Villeurbanne? 20 minutes make the point.
Insults that end in a “general brawl”
According to information from Progress, Saturday, around 7 p.m., a violent fight broke out in the Tonkin district, in Villeurbanne, between young girls after exchanges of insults. A mother was alerted to the attack on her child and arrived on the scene wanting to help him, according to her lawyers Jean-Christophe Basson-Larbi and Joshua Kafil.
They assure that the 41-year-old woman found her 14-year-old daughter “covered in blood” on the ground, being “beaten up” by five other “determined” young girls. She wanted to intervene and other people got involved in this “general” fight, the lawyers say.
Confusion
In this “confusion”, a young woman received three stab wounds, one in the neck, one in the buttock and another on the wrist and was taken to hospital. She came out the next day.
The mother was arrested and is accused of having carried out these attacks. On Sunday, she was taken into custody with another of her daughters also present at the scene. They will be presented this Monday to an investigating judge after the opening of a judicial investigation by the Lyon public prosecutor’s office for “attempted murder” and “aggravated violence”.
A denied version of the facts
According to their lawyers, Jean-Christophe Basson-Larbi and Joshua Kafil, “contrary to what has been reported by the press in defiance of the presumption of innocence, there is nothing to confirm that the mother of the family is the author of the stabbing “.
“At this stage, according to my client and her children, the knife was brandished and used by a young man in the crowd. The mother managed to disarm him to prevent a tragedy and prevent it from degenerating, indicates Jean-Christophe Basson-Larbi. On paper my client risks a lot when in reality, she simply wanted to protect her daughter and never wanted to kill anyone. »
Other complaints filed
For him, his clients are also victims. “They were chased by an armed man while they fled and tried to hide in a building lobby,” he said. He also regrets the way in which the start of this investigation was carried out in the face of the seriousness of the accusations against his clients and “the reality of the facts”.
Maître Jean-Christophe Basson-Larbi recalls that “the initial victim” is his client’s 14-year-old daughter. “The latter was not heard even though she was hit several times. Today, she is wearing a neck brace and has a damaged back,” he says, adding that she filed a complaint on Sunday evening. Her mother also filed a complaint this Monday for “attempted murder”, “aggravated violence in a meeting” and “repeated death threats” against her and her three children.