Aged 18 but a minor at the time of the events, he was indicted for the assassination of an Afghan refugee in August 2022 in Colmar (Haut-Rhin). According to a judicial source, the defendant was released under judicial supervision due to a procedural error. The suspect’s placement in pre-trial detention was extended by six months last August by a judge of freedoms and detention without including in the procedure the report of the Judicial Protection of Youth which contains in particular an educational proposal or measures promoting its social integration, although obligatory in this case.
It is this gap that the young man’s lawyer, Maître Steeve Ruben, attacked before the investigating chamber of the Colmar Court of Appeal, who ruled in his favor on Thursday by ordering his release, under judicial control of his client. “The procedural error is unavoidable, it was therefore necessary to draw the legal consequences […]. According to the code of criminal justice for minors, the collection of socio-educational information is obligatory for a minor at the time of the facts, even when he or she has become an adult,” the Colmar public prosecutor’s office was informed. , confirming information from regional daily newspapers The Republican East And Alsace.
Procedural errors scrutinized
The young man, who admitted to being the perpetrator of the shooting but denied any homicidal intent, “was placed under judicial supervision. If he is sent back to the juvenile assize court and if he respects the obligations and prohibitions of his judicial control, he will not return to prison until the trial where he will appear free, this is the law. we added. “All defense lawyers work on procedural errors before looking at the merits,” said counsel Steeve Ruben, of the Paris bar. There is a manual to follow and when that is not the case, our job is to bring it out. » Four people in total, all adults, are indicted in this case: two for murder and two for complicity. Three are still in pre-trial detention.
As a reminder, the facts were widely publicized at the time. On August 14, 2022, at the foot of a building in the Europe district of Colmar, an altercation broke out with a group of Afghans who were complaining about the excessive noise of a scooter. The alleged shooter then shot one of the members of the group, a 27-year-old Afghan refugee, before fleeing. He was arrested a week later in the Paris region.