The attack on eight-year-old Kenzo and his family shocked France. Three 20-year-old AC Ajaccio supporters are on trial this Friday in Ajaccio for these acts on the sidelines of the match between the Corsican football club and Olympique de Marseille on June 3. The three defendants appear free and deny any act of violence, even if they admit having entered the dressing room where Kenzo’s family was to recover the OM jersey worn by the father.
“I regret my gesture, we should never have done that. Just, it’s the extent that the whole affair has taken … It is very difficult to live with that, “said one of the defendants at the bar, claiming to have” received threats “after the fact. “I have a little brother, I could never hit a child”, he assured, specifying that “in the lodge, we did not see the children”.
Reactions to the top of the state
Kenzo, a young eight-year-old supporter of Olympique de Marseille suffering from brain cancer, was invited to Corsica on June 3 to fulfill his “dream” of meeting players from the Ligue 1 club. was in a box at the stadium with his father and his brother, the three defendants are accused of having burst in and hit the father of the family before leaving with his OM jersey.
This case had sparked reactions up to President Emmanuel Macron, who had asked for “clear and strong” sanctions, and led to complaints being filed by the Professional Football League (LFP) and the ACA. The family of little Kenzo is not present but represented by his lawyers, Me Michel Pezet and Me Frédéric Pourrière.
Useless CCTV
The Professional Football League (LFP) as well as the Ajaccien club are respectively represented on the bench of the civil parties by their lawyers. The court agreed to break the seals to allow the viewing, during the hearing, of CCTV images taken in and around the stadium. But these images do not show the interior of the lodge where the incidents would have occurred.
The viewing lasted until 5:50 p.m., when the study of the case could really begin by examining the personality of the defendants. Two have clean criminal records but one is awaiting trial in another unspecified case. The third has a conviction for acts of aggravated theft pronounced by the juvenile court when he was a minor. He had been sentenced to follow a course of citizenship.