“He's lost his footing.
"For Me Domitille Risbourg, his client never" wanted it to degenerate. "
But this November 3, 2017, in the parking lot of the cemetery of Ivry-le-Temple, it was otherwise.
Emmanuel Levacher was sentenced this Friday to 20 years of criminal imprisonment by the Assize Court of Oise, in Beauvais, for the murder of Hafid Mallouki.
After three days of trial, it is no surprise that this 40-year-old man who has always admitted the facts returns behind bars.
On that autumn evening, he had stabbed the victim about 40, whom he had known since childhood.
The reason?
A discussion around a drug debt that would have gone wrong.
"From the first minute of custody to today, my client has always delivered the same story," recalls Me Risbourg.
Namely, that it is Hafid Mallouki who would have pulled out a knife to threaten him.
For her, there is no doubt: “Narcotics are the heart of this issue.
"
"He didn't even dare to ask for forgiveness"
A version favored by the Advocate General who, in his indictment, considered that the outburst of violence by Emmanuel Levacher was the disproportionate response "to sudden and violent behavior" by the victim.
"And if it is difficult for his family to imagine that Hafid Mallouki could have been anything other than a victim, that he was able to traffic, that does not make his murder any less serious", underlines Edouard Bergougnous, which had required 20 years.
A difficult hearing for the civil parties who had to relive through the debates the death of their relative, resident of Méru and then 39 years old.
At the end of the hearing, their lawyer said he was "overall satisfied" with the sentence given the "atrocity of the crime".
"The family would have liked him to get the maximum amount incurred [Editor's note: 30 years] but they are well aware that this is not what will bring back their brother, their son, their husband," confides Me Paul-Henri Delarue.
When the verdict was announced, the accused, with a frail physique and small glasses, did not flinch.
For his lawyer, if this hearing allowed him to express himself on the facts, the ordeal remains painful.
“He's been living with this drama for 4 years.
It was very painful because we must not forget that Hafid Mallouki was originally one of his friends.
And in the end, he did not even dare to ask for forgiveness, because what he did was unforgivable for him.
"