Two young men were sentenced to 15 and 20 years of criminal imprisonment on Friday October 16 by the Assize Court of Doubs for having murdered Ion Matovic, 21, with a crossbow and a knife, in 2017 at Maîche.
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At the end of three days of closed hearing, the court followed the requisitions of the general counsel, Julie Fergane, who requested a 15-year prison sentence for the youngest, 17 years old at the time of the facts, and 20 years for the oldest, who was then 20 years old.
The two accused admitted the assassination of Ion Matovic on July 4, 2017 in Maîche (Doubs).
A third participant, aged 15 at the time, was sentenced last March to 12 years in prison by the Montbéliard court.
He had been found guilty of firing a crossbow bolt at the victim's back.
The victim was found dead near a bus shelter, his body lacerated with stab wounds.
The autopsy had revealed that a crossbow bolt had punctured his right lung.
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Presented as the instigator of the crime, the oldest of the accused had a narcotics debt of 600 euros with Ion Matovic.
But according to his lawyer, Me Julien Vernet, it was neither for this debt, nor to take the place of his dealer, that he killed him.
He was subjected to "
pressure, violence, blows
" from the latter, he killed him because he "
could not take it any longer, all this violence had to stop
", pleaded Mr. Vernet.
"
Nothing in the file shows that Mr. Matovic was insistent
", for its part retorted the family counsel of the victim, Me Jean-Baptiste Euvrard, describing the accused as a "
liar
" and a "
storyteller
".
His accomplice, "
a teenager with a chaotic childhood, enamelled with violence
", according to his lawyer Me Nathalie Rey-Demaneuf, is the author of the fatal stab wound near the heart.
"
Abandoned by his mother and left to himself, he was clearly under the influence
" of the organizer of the assassination, without whom "there would never have been this tragedy", assured the lawyer.