“Come close to the microphone and articulate, we don’t understand you! “The president of the Paris Assize Court of Appeal, Frédérique Aline, is having a hard time hearing the accused in his box this Wednesday. Aous Trabelsi takes the microphone handed to him by the bailiff and holds it as close to his mouth as possible. Aged 33, he was sentenced on May 18, 2022 to fifteen years in prison for having killed a motorist with whom he had argued over a place in the queue for a car wash. If he does not dispute the facts, this man dressed all in black, fine beard and hair, considers that the sentence imposed is “excessive” and has appealed the decision. He turns to the bench of the civil parties, where the wife, the brother and the nephew of the victim, Amadou Bah, are seated. “I renew my request for an apology,” he tells them in a trembling voice.
After drawing lots for the nine jurors who will decide on the sentence, the president recalls the facts. On February 11, 2020, around 3 p.m., Aous Trabelsi went to a Total service station, avenue de Paris, in Les Lilas (Seine-Saint-Denis), to have his car washed, a BMW series 1 that he decided to sell. In the queue, he overtakes the vehicle of the victim, a 35-year-old VTC driver, who entered the station to buy a ticket. When he leaves, he finds that he has been overtaken by the accused. Between the two men, the tone rises. Blows are exchanged. They are separated for the first time by witnesses. A few minutes later, a second altercation broke out. Aous Trabelsi turns to Amadou Bah, takes out the small knife he keeps with him and strikes the victim’s abdomen, causing him to collapse.
“I have never been violent”
The accused fled by car. Thanks to his license plate number, he was quickly identified by the investigators who went to his home in Romainville that evening. But the man is not there. He went earlier to tell his 5-month-pregnant girlfriend that he had done “a big bullshit”. Then he went to a friend’s house where he left a bag containing the murder weapon. Finally, he went to his lawyer, in Paris, and was arrested by the police when he left his office. In police custody, he learns that the victim, a Guinean political refugee who arrived in France in 2010, died. “His wife and two children were preparing to join him as part of a family reunification,” said the president.
Before the examining magistrate, this father of two children swears that he wanted to “defend himself” and that he did not wish to “do harm” to the victim. If he took a knife in his hand, it was simply to “impress” Amadou Bah. But the latter would have attacked him, and the shot would then have gone off. The investigating magistrate does not retain self-defense and sends him back to the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis for murder. He was finally sentenced to fifteen years in prison for intentional violence with a weapon resulting in death without the intention of giving it as a legal recidivism. A decision he appealed. “I do not understand the legal recidivism, he explains to the president. I’ve never been violent, I’ve never killed anyone before. »
“Speed hair man”
The magistrate points out to him that he has two old convictions on his criminal record, both in connection with narcotics. “These are facts punishable by at least ten years in prison”, continues Frédérique Aline, adding that it is about “the application of the law”. This Tunisian, who arrived in France in 2010, was twice involved in crack trafficking and received a few months in prison suspended. “I had bad company, he says. I was challenged, fortunately, because it put me back on the right track. Thereafter, he did odd jobs, put some money aside and opened a hairdressing salon, called Speed hair man.
Aous Trabelsi met his partner in 2016 and married her religiously in Rennes. A few months later, he teamed up with a friend, “hired three Chinese people” and transformed his hairdressing salon into a delivery sushi restaurant. But at the time, he was in an irregular situation on the territory. “On paper, the manager was my partner’s wife. In January 2020, he decided to sell his business to start as a VTC driver. “I know people who made more money than me by making less effort,” said the accused. The sale of his business earns him 35,000 euros which he shares with his partner. The assessor asks him what he did with that money. “Lawyers are expensive,” he breathes.
brazilian martial art
A few months before the tragedy, Aous Trabelsi had started practicing a Brazilian martial art in a room in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. “I didn’t go there often,” he says. In particular, he had learned to handle “plastic knives”. But “I am not violent, I am peaceful”, he continues. Regarding his former cannabis use, he explains that he recently quit smoking during his detention. In prison, he “poses no problem”, he says. His trial runs until Thursday, April 13. The accused faces life imprisonment.