The facts date back to last Friday, in the Planoise district of Besançon (Doubs). In the evening, a 48-year-old man of Bosnian origin was stabbed to death. Four days later, a 17-year-old minor was indicted on Tuesday for this assassination, announced the public prosecutor Étienne Manteaux.
This minor, already sentenced for theft with violence, was also indicted for drug trafficking and violence against a person in charge of a public service. He was remanded in custody.
The autopsy revealed that the victim had suffered a single knife wound in the heart area. The blow was delivered with force because the medical examiner noted a fracture of the fourth and fifth ribs, in front of the heart.
“The victim had been sentenced to six months in prison last April for drug trafficking and he was prohibited from appearing in the area of rue de Cologne in Planoise”, according to Etienne Manteaux.
The investigation identified a minor who was riding a scooter nearby, shortly before the incident. This 17.5-year-old suspect was arrested on Sunday at the home of a forty-year-old who hosted him in the Planoise district, the latter having been quickly exonerated.
” Revenge ” ?
The minor disputes the facts. Convicted on multiple occasions for theft with violence by the Lyon juvenile court, he admitted having recently arrived in Besançon to participate in the drug trade.
The investigation showed that he had been violently attacked, four hours before the murder, by an individual not yet identified but who is not the victim of 48 years. “One of the hypotheses is oriented towards revenge by the minor”, declared the prosecutor.
He had been taken to the hospital by relatives but had refused to be treated. Returning to the point of deal, he then stabbed the victim, who was on the spot.
According to a count by Etienne Manteaux, this is the sixth homicide in less than ten months in Besançon. The Planoise district, in the Bisontine city, has been the scene for several months of a gang war for the control of drug trafficking.