"Whoever kills must bear the consequences", asserts the lawyer for the civil parties this Friday before the Assize Court of Essonne in Evry-Courcouronnes.
For the Advocate General, if this file presents "gray areas" in the "chronology of facts, which is not clear", Mehmet, 28, was indeed guilty of murder on September 29, 2014 in repeatedly stabbing Yusuf, 21, on platform B of Juvisy-sur-Orge station.
Hence the requisitions of 15 years of criminal imprisonment.
But the court and the jurors decided otherwise by reclassifying the facts as willful violence resulting in death without intention of giving it, and by condemning the accused to eight years in prison.
To read also Stabbed to death at Juvisy station: "All I did was to save my life", defends the accused
On September 29, 2014, Mehmet, accompanied by a minor crossed by chance, had an appointment with Ararat, who owes him 200 euros and who refuses to reimburse him.
When he arrived by train on the platform of Juvisy station, around 9.15 p.m., Ararat was present, but accompanied by three other people, including Yusuf.
The latter then says that he is there "to fuck someone's mother".
Mehmet takes the insult for him and hits him.
The two 21-year-olds exchange punches, while Ararat punches Mehmet with the belt.
Ararat, on the run for five years, was sentenced to four years in prison for the beatings which resulted in Mehmet being totally unable to work for 10 days.
An arrest warrant has been issued against him.
Stabbing "not spontaneous but reactive"
The rest of the fight is less clear. Yusuf retrieves a butcher's leaf brought by Ararat and attempts to hit Mehmet in the head. He touches it near the ear. The latter takes out a knife and stabs Mehmet several times. One of the blows hits the left ventricle. An injury that will be fatal to the victim. Who pulled a gun first? That was the whole point of this trial. “The facts are neither all black nor all white on one side or the other, agrees the Advocate General. Mehmet is also a victim. He was injured by blows from a belt and a chopper. His stab wounds are not spontaneous, but reactive. All this for a small debt… ”
For Me Philippe Quatreboeufs, defense lawyer, “Mehmet did not want this death.
He didn't aim for the heart.
He hit him in the side, in front of someone who is mobile and tries to hit him with a weapon.
He stabs him until he stops advancing on him and stops hitting him with a hatchet.
There is no homicidal intent.
If he pulls out his knife, it is because he is convinced that his life is at stake. He talks about self-defense.
Moreover, when he takes blows with the belt, he does not stab.
"
Invited to speak last, Mehmet, insulted by one of the civil parties, again affirmed that he had never intended to kill: “I did it just to protect my life.
Before that, I had never harmed anyone ”.
