Seven years in prison and a 100,000 euros fine were required Monday, October 11 before the criminal court, against the alleged organizer of a rental network of a hundred unsanitary housing in the Lyon region in 2010 to 2016.
Read alsoA network of sleep merchants tried in Lyon on Monday
Ouajdi Ben Slama, 37, prosecuted along with 13 other defendants, has been described as "
an entrepreneur of the occult
" by prosecutor Laurie Lacoste, who also asked judges to ban him from running a business for fifteen years. “
He chose to cover it all up. He created an entirely opaque underground economy network
, ”said the magistrate, for whom the main defendant brought“
greed to its height
”by taking advantage of the vulnerability of undocumented migrants to hire them, clandestinely, 113 housing.
"
He took away the dignity of these poor people,
" insisted the prosecutor, recalling the testimony of a family who lived five in 20 square meters, and whose father had to sleep in a car.
"
It is all the more detestable that he himself has known this course (of migration), he had no mercy
", added Laurie Lacoste about this Tunisian who arrived in France at the age of 14. , naturalized since, who could, according to her, “
become a very good entrepreneur if he had not chosen to be on the margins of society
”.
Up to 5 years in prison for accomplices
In this exceptional case of sleep merchants, the 14 defendants are prosecuted in particular for submitting vulnerable or dependent people to unworthy accommodation conditions, fraud, money laundering in an organized gang. The prosecutor requested sentences of three to five years in prison, including one suspended sentence, and fines of 50,000 to 100,000 euros against the "
first circle
" of accomplices, including brothers, sister and brother-in-law of the principal warned. The requisitions range from six months' suspended imprisonment to two years firm against the "
second circle
" of those accused, suspected of having played the roles of intermediaries or figureheads in the fifteen companies used by the network .
Read alsoSeveral prison sentences required in Marseille against "sleep merchants"
According to the prosecution, after managing undeclared low-cost, high-yield hairdressing salons, the family network invested in real estate, contracting two million euros in bank loans, in order to launder the money earned and to produce new profits by renting housing divided into small areas.
The defense pleads Tuesday.
