Free lynching trial: the face-to-face of the accused and their victim

Fabien Lherbier's chair is hoisted over the wooden wall that separates the courtroom from the public benches.

The machine with the large wheels does not pass the access.

The man, supported by his wife, walks slowly to sit down next to his lawyers.

He stares at the two boys in the box, Mohamed A. and Bilal B. The third, Mohamed B., who appears free, appears to him in profile.

But their looks, their looks over the masks, and their voices mean nothing to him.

Memory loss is one of the aftermath of the violence he suffered.

"I'm waiting for the verdict," he slips during a suspension.

Behind him and My Loïc Bussy and Damien Legrand, his advice comes to hug his wife Cathy, his children and his sisters, united.

It would be to these three young people from a small city of Libercourt (North) close to his home, two of whom deny the facts, tried in Douai until March 12 before the North Assize Court for aggravated attempted murder, that this former crane operator owes his disability.

He sees them for the third time since he was beaten up in a dead end and then left for dead in a field near his burning car at dawn on May 28, 2015 near Phalempin (Pas-de-Calais) .

The second was during a reenactment three years ago - one of the two defendants in the box had wished him a "good recovery".

The first, that of the aggression he forgot, which occurred while looking for his dogs.

For "a bad look," it has been reported.

School dropout and cannabis addiction

The president draws up a summary of the indictment, based in particular on the confessions of Mohamed B. "We will try to find out what happened", she announces.

She turns to them.

Reminds them that, perpetrators as accomplice, they risk life imprisonment.

Then ask them each, "Do you plead guilty or not guilty?"

"-" Not guilty ", proclaims Mohamed A in a loud voice.

"Same", goes on a tone below Bilal B. his cousin.

"I was present that evening," continues, barely audible, Mohamed B.

At the helm follow the smooth words of personality investigators.

These common points appear in the young lives of those accused before the facts: a modest environment, where mothers are caregivers or caregivers and difficult ends of the month.

Where the fathers are carpenters, house painters or mechanics, with the peculiarity of their absence for cousins ​​due to premature death and separation.

A turning point in adolescence marked by dropping out of school and multiple behavioral problems.

No diploma and little or no professional activity.

A cannabis addiction hidden from the family "in a drug-ridden neighborhood," one described.

The line of fracture that separates the paths of the main defendants from the one who appointed them emerges afterwards, when psychosocial expertises, criminal records and prison reports are mentioned.

The image of "nice, adorable, helpful" guys that the relatives of the cousins ​​defend then comes to be broken.

"They are known to fight with everyone"

"This story, I have nothing to do with it, I feel misunderstood, my imprisonment, I do not accept it", argues Bilal B., nine convictions in the record, to explain the 17 "reports of incidents" (insults , fights, illicit objects) of his detention.

"Yes I see myself as adorable, a good person!"

I never disputed that I was turbulent, ”says Mohamed A., facing the court, who speaks, for the 15 mentions in his record, of“ youthful mistakes ”and dodges the rest by protesting, suddenly annoyed, n 'have' never burned a flag!

".

"You are not there for that", whispered the Advocate General.

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To the psychiatrist expert, Mohamed B., whose criminal record is clean, thus recounted the moment when the two cousins ​​would have returned to his car after having set on fire that of Fabien Lherbier, whose body they had placed in the trunk.

“They left for 5 minutes.

I saw flames.

I heard (Bilal B.) say:

I put it at 7 m

.

I said: It's serious.

They said to me:

Son of a bitch.

(…) They are known to fight with everyone, they have planted someone.

I could have saved myself… I was afraid it would happen to this point.

"