The Haute-Garonne Assize Court on Friday sentenced a young man to 30 years in prison for the murder of a student in 2011 in Toulouse, a lower sentence compared to the life sentence decided at first instance and on appeal.
"It is a sentence which seems fairer to me than those pronounced until then because it opens the door of hope with, by nature, an end",
confided to AFP Me Alexandre Martin, lawyer of the defense alongside Emmanuelle Franck.
Read also: Toulouse: two indictments after a murder by firearm
Hicham Ouakki, 18 years old at the time of the facts, had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 and then on appeal in 2017 for the murder of Jérémy Roze, a 27-year-old student.
But the Court of Cassation had invalidated his last trial because of a procedural flaw, thus opening the way to a third trial.
“Symbolically, jurors meant that life sentences should be reserved for sunk criminals.
It is a sentence greeted with a form of relief because it can be built with a quantified objective
,
”
said the defense lawyer.
The sentence of 30 years of criminal imprisonment is accompanied by 20 years incompressible.
For the family of the victim, this new trial has above all brought back the trauma caused by the murder of this young student.
"For my clients, it's still a relief to be able to finish, after 10 years of proceedings and three trials,"
said Me Bérengère Froger, lawyer for the civil party.
"They hope they can finally experience something else."
The pain is all the more acute as Jérémy Roze's family was waiting for a confession from Hicham Ouakki, which they did not obtain.
If he admits having been at the origin of the attack, Hicham Ouakki still denies having dealt the fatal blow, despite the recording of a telephone conversation dating from the evening of the murder, where he confessed to his girlfriend:
"I" planted a young ”.
Again questioned by the Assize Court, two of his friends assured that he confided in them after the act, panicked, repeating
"I think I killed him"
and
"I am dead, I will go to jail ”
.
In 2011, Jérémy Roze was assaulted around 2:30 a.m. on his way home, after an evening spent with friends.
The student in his last year of pharmacy had then resisted the theft of his personal effects, before receiving a stab in the heart.
His death had caused a stir in Toulouse, where a
"procession of anger"
had gathered a thousand people.
A second man, Driss Arab, was sentenced on appeal to 20 years in prison.
He had not appealed in cassation and was therefore not retried.