The Assize Court for Minors in Bouches-du-Rhône on Friday (February 4th) sentenced four young people to five and six years in prison for beating a man at a drug sales point in Marseille, thinking he spoke to the police.
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On September 18, 2018, Mathieu, then 23 years old, was hit by a group of around twenty young people at the foot of a tower in the Air Bel city in the eastern districts of Marseille.
Taken under an avalanche of kicks and punches, the young man had also received a dozen stab wounds which led to his leg being amputated below the knee.
A flawed investigation
Originally from Oise, Mathieu had come four months earlier to Marseille to work in a supermarket.
But, the very day of his arrival, he had been arrested at a point of sale of drugs by the police while he was smoking a joint alongside a charcoal burner (dealer) who had managed to flee.
On site, a bag was found containing 440 grams of cannabis resin, eight pouches of cocaine and 160 euros.
If Mathieu managed to convince the investigators that he was not part of the network and came out after only a few hours of police custody with a summons to a delegate from the prosecutor, it was not the same in the city. .
Returning to the point of deal to assure the managers of the network of his silence, he had been surrounded by twenty young people questioning his statements.
"
It's a big myth, how he can come out four hours later, with a bag
," said a boy who was one of the five accused.
Not having taken part in the surge of violence, he was acquitted.
Mathieu owed his salvation to the arrival of firefighters alerted by local residents.
The lawyers for the five defendants, aged 16 to 19 at the time, pointed to "
the evolving statements
" of the victim, denouncing a flawed investigation.
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“
There is no observation made on the spot, no trace DNA found, no analysis of traces of blood.
It's a sloppy investigation
, "said Me Pierre Bruno, defender of the youngest of the accused, designated as having given three stab wounds.
Representing the victim who, still terrified, did not attend the debates Me Thibault Laforcade pointed out that Mathieu has been living since his release from hospital in an apartment not equipped for his disability, while he still has not been able to be properly fitted.