Denouncing “
crimes of exceptional gravity
”, the prosecution requested a sharp increase in sentences on Tuesday February 22 at the appeal trial of nine men accused of having participated in the incredible kidnapping of Jacqueline Veyrac, a wealthy heiress owner of prestigious establishments on the French Riviera, in 2016.
Read also Kidnapping of Jacqueline Veyrac: 18 years in prison for the main organizer
A former English soldier, a former paparazzi, henchmen recruited in a sensitive neighborhood of Nice: these are the main actors in this kidnapping, in broad daylight, in the heart of Nice.
The victim, then 76 years old, had been violently thrown into a Kangoo vehicle, where she remained sequestered, tied up, for 48 hours, before being finally released by residents, in the hills of Nice.
“Riddled with delusions of grandeur”
Before the Assize Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence, the Advocate General, Marie-Laure Ferrier, struck hard in her requisitions, much stronger than the Assize Court of the Alpes-Maritimes, in first instance, in January 2021. The only absentee from this appeal trial opened on January 31, and not the least, was Giuseppe Serena, designated by the prosecution as "
the central figure
", the brain of this kidnapping organized with the aim of get a large ransom.
If his case was disjointed for health issues, it was he who was still at the heart of the debates.
Read also Kidnapping of Jacqueline Veyrac: 30 years of imprisonment required against the main defendant
"
It all starts with the megalomania of Giuseppe Serena, eaten away by delusions of grandeur
", pleaded Tuesday morning Me Luc Febbraro, Jacqueline Veyrac's lawyer, about this Italian restaurateur who had been entrusted with the management of the Reserve. , one of the most prestigious establishments in Nice, but which had quickly collapsed in debt.
"
He did not support his fall, and like any megalomaniac, for whom it is necessarily the fault of others, he needed a culprit, it was Jacqueline Veyrac
", detailed the lawyer.
Giuseppe Serena absent, the Advocate General demanded the most severe sentences against the trio of kidnappers: 20 years' imprisonment against Ali Gueffaz and Bassem Ben Fekih, 25 years against Wajdi Ben Hamroun.
“
You shut up where I bump into you!
“, would have launched the latter to the victim, to whom the kidnappers had also refused a bucket of ease during the two days of his confinement.
In the first instance they had been sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment for the first two, fifteen years for the third.
The “revenge of a failed life”
Marie-Laure Ferrier also requested 25 years of imprisonment against the Briton Philip Dutton, the "
tireless organizer of this revenge
".
This man who lived in a homeless home in Jersey "
left everything, giving in to the patter of a huckstering Italian
" to take "
revenge for a failed life
", accused the magistrate.
Philip Dutton, who presents himself as a soldier who has traveled through many theaters of conflict, was sentenced to fourteen years in prison at first instance.
Against Luc Goursolas, ex-paparazzi converted into a private detective, the Advocate General demanded fifteen years of imprisonment, for complicity in kidnapping and kidnapping.
The Assize Court of the Alpes-Maritimes had only sentenced him to two years in prison, including one year suspended, for non-denunciation of a crime.
It was he who had placed two beacons under the victim's vehicle, but under the sole pretext of an alleged adultery investigation, he always explained.
Read alsoAbduction of Jacqueline Veyrac: an ex-paparazzi claims to have been “unwittingly involved in something sordid”
Eight years in prison were claimed against Salim Bousbia, who would have put the organizers of the kidnapping in contact with the trio of performers, from the Moulins district of Nice.
The same sentence was requested against Achraf M'Hamdi, acquitted at first instance.
According to the Advocate General, her participation in this kidnapping would be demonstrated by the presence of her DNA on the mattress equipping the vehicle in which Jacqueline Veyrac had been sequestered.
Finally, five-year sentences, three of which were suspended, were required against two defendants tried for criminal association.
Currently in Dubai, Jacqueline Veyrac has not returned to testify at this second trial.
