Two men aged 21 and 23 have been appearing since Wednesday March 10 in front of the assizes of Seine-Saint-Denis for acts of torture on a detainee who shared their cell at the Villepinte remand center, where prison overcrowding reached records .
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At the opening of their trial, which should last three days, the president of the court gave a difficult story of the violence inflicted on the victim, now 24 years old.
On December 10, 2018, the latter, "
totally panicked
", refused to return to his cell.
To a supervisor, he ended up telling that his fellow inmates beat him daily.
The day before, they gave him a real torture session.
After undressing him, they beat and electrocuted him, especially in the genitals, with the bare wires of the ventilator.
Then they forced him to insert a lighter into the anus and masturbate.
His attackers then blindfolded him before urinating in his mouth and forcing him to eat his feces.
The young man will end the night in his underwear, on a mattress on the floor, in front of an open window.
Wednesday morning, the two defendants admitted, totally or in part, the facts.
During the investigation, they declared that they no longer supported their fellow detainee, who was described as "
dirty
" and "
too weak
".
They also accused him - which was wrong - of being imprisoned for rape.
"
Three in a cell is too much,
" said one of them during his custody.
The Villepinte remand center, which accommodates short-term convicts and detainees awaiting trial, is facing structural overcrowding.
In March 2017, its director went so far as to refuse to welcome new inmates: her establishment then accommodated more than 1,100 inmates, i.e. an occupancy rate of over 200%.
On Wednesday morning, the Assize Court looked at the personality and the very chaotic journeys of the defendants.
The first, wrapped in a big black down jacket, presented as the leader by his victim, arrived at the age of 14 from Côte d'Ivoire, was at the time detained for aggravated rape.
He has since been convicted but appealed.
The second, a child of the ASE (social assistance to children) imprisoned in Villepinte after being convicted in cases of narcotics, had told the personality investigator "
not to want to be judged in relation to his experience
" .
Both face thirty years of imprisonment.
