"Serious acts" penalized by "severe penalties" : three young men were sentenced on Friday in Créteil to terms ranging from 18 months to six years in prison for assaults on people mainly of Asian origin.
The Criminal Court of Créteil, which accepted the aggravating circumstance of racism, sentenced Ilyes Z., described against the leader of the group, to the heaviest punishment, that is, six years' imprisonment with continued detention.
One of his stooges Marvin V. was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, including one year suspended sentence, with continued detention. The third defendant, Joaquim P., who appeared free, was sentenced to 36 months, 18 of which was suspended, but will be able to adjust his sentence.
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"We are not guillotiners," said the president of the court in the preamble to the judgment, however, saying that these "harsh" sentences came "to sanction attacks on certain fundamental values". When the judgment was pronounced, Marvin V. and Joachim P. remained impassive, in shock, while Ilyès Z. did not hide his anger. In addition to their sentence, they have the obligation to compensate their victims.
The court moved away from the requisitions of the prosecution which had asked for penalties ranging from 5 to 8 years firm against this "team of predators" who "took care, sometimes for hours, to choose its victims almost exclusively Asian ”.
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The events took place between February and April 2019 mainly in the cities of Ivry and Vitry-sur-Seine, in Val-de-Marne, as well as in the XIIIth arrondissement of Paris, places of life of the Asian community.
The investigation, which began in February 2019 after a resurgence of thefts with the same operating mode, made it possible to identify around thirty victims even if, according to the investigators, they must in reality be more numerous.
"Relief"
In more than half of the cases, the theft of handbags was compounded by numerous forms of violence: kicking, jostling and brushing, as the president of the tribunal had reminded the day before. "Free violence" targeting "helpless targets" , according to Me Soc Lam who defended six victims.
Only one of them made the trip to court. Thursday at the helm, helped by a translator, she recounted her snatch, early one morning in April. And the anxiety that never leaves her. "I'm constantly afraid," she said. After the judgment, she told AFP of her "relief" after a "long and sometimes complicated" judicial process . For his lawyer, Me Lam, "the sentences pronounced correspond to the gravity of the facts but also to the personalities of the detainees who had not expressed any regrets".
Civil parties, Licra, SOS racism and the Mrap had, with one voice, denounced "racist" and "unbearable" acts which "must not go unpunished". "You terrorized entire neighborhoods!" , carried away Me Mathieu Riberolles, counsel for Licra who had asked the court to send "a message of firmness".
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The defense, which had pleaded "the error of youth" and insisted on the regrets of the defendants, denounced "heavy penalties" taking into account in particular the age of the defendants.
"This decision is a stunner and does not take into account the partial release (on certain facts of theft editor's note) of my client nor his sincere repentance" , reacted Me Pierre Deval, counsel for Ilyès Z. In his argument, he had asked for a sentence "which does not sign the death warrant" of his client.
Present throughout the trial, Sun-Lay Tan, spokesman for the collective Safety for All of 94, which accompanies the victims in their judicial journey, welcomed "a decision that will allow the victims to come out of the silence".
