Just a year ago, 17-year-old Oliver Tony disappeared under appalling circumstances, lynched to death live on social media.
This young Sevranais had left his home in the city of Rougemont, on the night of November 6 to 7, 2019, with two friends, for a night transaction.
Five men were arrested, including the main author.
A last 15-year-old suspect was arrested on September 15: he allegedly concealed the phone that had filmed Oliver's last moments in Noisy-le-Sec.
READ ALSO>
Sevran mourns Oliver, lynched to death on the banks of the Ourcq canal
Today, in Sevran, Ismène, Oliver's mother, wants to sweep away these sordid images, and she implores: "We are not calling for revenge or hatred, but we just want that.
Let the authors tell the truth ”.
"We want the violence to stop"
For her part, Bamakan, a childhood friend, has just founded an association with other young people.
They called her Beautiful smile, in homage to Oliver.
Every Friday, this small group meets at the mother of the victim to perpetuate her memory through actions with young people.
“We must absolutely prevent young people from getting there for easy money.
We want the violence to stop.
Revenge only fuels wars between cities, ”explains the young high school student.
On the night of the tragedy, around 1 a.m., a video posted on Oliver's Snapchat account is heart-lifting.
Despite this face swollen by the blows, Bamakan has no doubts: “I recognized him directly despite the distorted features.
It was Oliver ”.
This short film shot by the attackers shows them pushing and then fishing the teenager in a stream, which will turn out to be the Ourcq canal, at the height of the Decathlon of Noisy-le-Sec.
"Get into the water," calls out a male voice.
On the video, there is also this enigmatic sentence heavy with innuendo: “Money is not worth a man's life”.
Is Oliver in danger of death?
Worse, is he still alive?
No one has precise indications of where the body may have been thrown.
We just see that he was fished out by his torturers.
Panting looking
All hope of finding him alive is not lost.
The police are alerted.
Mickaël, the older brother, gathers his friends and goes looking for him.
A race against time begins.
In the morning, the river brigade dredges the canal, we return the cellars of Noisy-le-Sec, we search the woods in search of Oliver.
Always nothing.
Seine-Saint-Denis newsletter
Every morning, the news of your department seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
The investigation by the judicial police, which mobilized all its forces, is progressing decisively.
Four days after the publication of the video, two 17-year-old minors were arrested.
One is Oliver's boyfriend, who was with him that night.
The other, also 17, from Noisy-le-Sec, would have filmed the scene with his mobile phone and struck so hard that he broke his hand.
"He would also have helped him out of the water," said a source close to the investigation.
Double scam
The judicial police begin to see the scenario.
"It's an inverted carrot", specifies a source close to the file.
Oliver and two young people from Sevran came into contact with their future attackers through the social network Snapchat, under the designation "I sell 93".
They offer cannabis.
In Noisy-le-Sec, someone is very interested.
At the start of the night, Oliver and his two friends set off with an idea behind their heads.
“They pretended they were going to sell them cannabis that they didn't have and once there they stole the money.
"
In anticipation, they are armed with a dummy weapon.
But in Noisy, "buyers came with empty pockets," said a source close to the investigation.
The double scam puts buyers in a mad rage.
Oliver's cronies flee, leaving their friend in the hands of the traffickers.
But the first two suspects are unable to say where Oliver is.
We had to wait for a flight to land at Roissy airport on November 13.
Harouna K., 27, who fled to Thailand to escape the police, gets out.
The hearing of this key witness will give a decisive turn to the investigation.
Numerous stab wounds
On November 14, in the vicinity of Tours (Indre-et-Loire), Oliver's naked body, his arms crossed on his chest, was discovered in a flooded ditch.
The corpse bears numerous stab wounds.
The coroner noted 18 stab wounds.
The autopsy indicates that despite their savagery, none of these stab wounds were fatal.
At the end of his strength, the victim would have succumbed to asphyxiation.
From the edges of the canal where it is pushed, to the ditch where it is abandoned, the stages of Oliver's ordeal emerge.
Between the two, he was sequestered in the cellar of a building in the Béthisy district, in Noisy-le-Sec.
There, he might have had a chance to make it out alive.
At one point, he takes advantage of the absence of his jailers to escape and go upstairs.
He bangs on the doors.
"A man opened it but seeing the bloody body and the swollen face he immediately closed it", relates a source close to the investigation.
On the other hand, his attackers, by following the trails of blood, find his trail without difficulty.
Panicked, they seek to get rid of their hostage, fleeing far from Noisy.
They push Oliver into the trunk of a vehicle and take the direction of Tours.
Abusers say "they weren't bad"
Among the five men arrested, Harouna K. bears the heaviest charges.
This follower of MMA, a violent martial art, was indicted for attempted murder in an organized gang, kidnapping with ransom demand and acts of torture resulting in death.
His accomplices, a 17-year-old minor, is being prosecuted for attempted homicide, and a 26-year-old man for acts of torture.
All three were imprisoned.
It remains to be seen what role each of these men played.
If the mobile is clear, there are still some gray areas.
"They grossly downplay their participation and say they weren't mean," said an inside source.
The instruction is far from being completed.
Many expertises still have to be carried out.
None of the lawyers wanted to speak.