At the Assize Court of Aix-en-Provence,
Fourth day of hearing at the Aix-en-Provence Assize Court, which is trying four men accused of having kidnapped and tortured a child for having dealt to Félix Pyat without the authorization of the network. This Monday, the victim, Mathieu*, 16 years old in 2019 at the time of the events, came to testify about his night of ordeal.
A night spent tied to a chair, stripped naked in an abandoned association premises and burned with cigarette butts and a blowtorch. He was also able to designate A. as his main torturer, by identifying him by his tone of voice. An accusation also supported by an anonymous testimony.
An alibi from Lyon
This accusation, A., who appeared detained for having been sentenced to ten years in prison for a robbery committed in 2017, tried to refute it. Arrested in 2019 a handful of weeks after the events which occupies the criminal court today, the accused stepped up to the microphone behind the mirror of the detainees’ box. “Perhaps there are some who want to blame me because I have already had a long sentence,” he said. Before explaining that he was not in Marseille at the time of the events.
“In fact, I was in Lyon because I knew I was wanted for the robbery,” said the young man in his twenties, wearing undress and a gray t-shirt. He would have been hosted sometimes by an acquaintance, a certain Délia, sometimes by a cousin, or at a hotel. So many potential witnesses that he did not call. “I didn’t want to put them in there and thought this story wouldn’t go any further. » He faces a sentence of thirty years in prison.
During the hearing before the investigating judge, A. showed little empathy: “These are things that happen every day in Marseille. The violence that there is here, when you grew up in the Marseille neighborhoods, is shocking, but it is there. » Facing the court, he took this same position, quite detached from the facts. “It’s horrible what he went through. But I live in my bubble. » Before continuing, a little later: “No one deserves that, I wouldn’t have liked to be in their place. But in drug trafficking, a mistake can quickly be costly. And we see it with the violence which is increasing more and more. »
While his co-defendants must be heard this Thursday on the merits, A., whose Lyon story did not really seem to have convinced the court, finally received an unexpected boost with the hearing of an expert psychologist who was obviously not very picky. In his report, the psychologist writes that A. told him he was on the scene at the time of the events. Likewise, regarding one of his co-defendants, the expert said that the latter admitted to a slap. But problem: if one of the accused admits to a slap, it is not the one to whom he makes these confessions. “I may well have made a mistake,” admitted the expert, arousing the annoyance of the attorney general. The verdict is expected this Friday.