Four men will be tried for five days before the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis, from this Tuesday in Bobigny, for kidnapping, kidnapping acts of torture and barbarism committed in an organized gang.
Steve A., the victim had suffered long abuse in July 2017 between Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Vigneux-sur-Seine (Essonne).
He was claimed between 10,000 and 30,000 €, depending on the version, for a theft of cocaine.
All are from Guyana or neighboring Suriname, hubs of cocaine trafficking.
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Three days of abuse
They had arranged for Steve A. to meet in Saint-Denis.
The rest is a nightmare.
In Saint-Denis, his attackers cut his dreadlocks off and push him into the trunk of a car then they drive to Vigneux-sur-Seine (Essonne).
There, in an apartment, the abuse begins.
The victim will identify seven people who will take turns around her.
To show that they weren't kidding, one of them asks him "to choose between the finger and the eye to leave as collateral."
Fortunately, the project had not been carried out.
The victim will be released three days later, when the first arrests occur in an apartment in La Courneuve.
If he hadn't understood who he was dealing with, one of his jailers told him that "their thing was not to beat up but to kill".
In this apartment in Essonne, he will live three days of hell.
The torturers pass his torso with a blowtorch, beat him "for several hours".
Burns, head trauma, and broken nose
Steve A. will be released after fearing the worst.
He comes out with burns, a head trauma and a broken nose.
The beatings will cause 15 days of ITT (temporary incapacity for work).
The kidnappers are far from recognizing the facts.
Oswald S., 48, denies everything, he does not know Steve.
He did go to Vigneux, but it was to do some shopping “for his children”.
Troy L., 37, admits having been present in Saint-Denis but exonerates himself from the beating.
However, the victim accuses him of having hit him with a shard of a bottle and confirms his presence in Vigneux's apartment.
She also holds him to be one of the main executors, directly mandated by traffickers to recover the cocaine money.
"He acts as an intermediary but does not participate in the violence", underlines Me Frédéric Beaufils, his lawyer.
A debt of € 30,000?
Jaysen S. 29 years old, observes the same line of defense as his co-defendants.
All those who will surround him in the box and on the bench of the civil parties are complete strangers.
Even if his cell phone was limited to the different stages of the kidnapping, he concedes his presence in Saint-Denis but not in Essonne.
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He would have, according to the prosecution, been one of the sponsors of the kidnapping.
For Me Sfez, his lawyer, the most appropriate qualification would be "aggravated willful violence" with a referral to a criminal court.
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Stéphano P., 24, would also have had a very active role in the case.
He will explain that the victim would have stolen the cocaine which came from Guyana and would have contracted a debt of 30,000 €.
Steve A. on the bench of civil parties came out alive from the clutches of this team.
He already has a good knowledge of this environment because he was convicted in 2019 for importing cocaine.
The whole debate before the Assize Court will be to decide on the notion of organized gang.