At the Assises de l’Hérault (illustration) – N. Bonzom / Maxele Presse
A “cold case” relaunched 19 years later thanks to anonymous information. Four men, accused of the murder of young Mathieu Hocquet in
Vierzon in 1999, were sentenced to terms ranging from 12 to 20 years imprisonment, this Friday at the Assizes of Cher.
Prosecuted for “kidnapping, kidnapping and arbitrary detention followed by death”, they faced life imprisonment. In its verdict, the court was convinced of the guilt of the defendants.
A dismissal in 2005
Bouchaïb Mohib and Driss Belkhouribchia were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, Samir Berkani to 18 years (all three said they were innocent) and Cyril Bourguignon to 12 years. The jurors did not grant Cyril Bourguignon the benefit of a law concerning returnees and which could reduce their sentence. The latter had admitted having driven a car which was to be used to abduct the victim.
Sentences of 14 to 25 years’ imprisonment had been requested by the prosecution. On July 13, 1999, Mathieu Hocquet’s lifeless body was found, his head smashed, in a dead end along an artisanal zone in Vierzon. The autopsy had revealed that the young man had been massacred, before dying from “a subdural hematoma”, President Audrey Debeugny recalled Monday. The investigators had initially followed the homosexual track, then the local track, but for lack of result the justice had pronounced a dismissal in 2005.
Towards a defense call?
The four defendants, now aged 41 to 45, were arrested and indicted in 2018, a few months after an anonymous information was received by the judicial police of Orléans. This information had enabled two investigating judges from Bourges to reopen the case, as authorized by the Code of Criminal Procedure if new elements appear.
During the second investigation, one of the suspects implicated the other three, giving explanations, before going back on his statements. The investigation was this time oriented towards a villainous motive. At the time of the facts, Mathieu Hocquet, then aged 22, worked in a fast food restaurant in Vierzon and, according to one advanced hypothesis, was attacked to recover the recipe of the establishment that employed him. The trial opened on Monday before the Cher Assize Court, 22 years after the fact. Defense lawyers do not rule out appealing.