A poker debt and a mysterious sponsor.
Thus should we understand the violent kidnapping of a young man, in Vanves, in June 2018. A kidnapping with sequestration and demand for ransom, for which five men have been responding since Friday and until the end of the week before the court of Assizes of the Hauts-de-Seine.
Five defendants aged 27 and 28, acquaintances from Val-de-Marne who, for some, frequented Le Purple, a shisha bar in Ivry-sur-Seine.
Today in the box of the accused, Youssef K. managed this establishment at the material time.
The Purple, where the plan was partly scaffolded, on the instruction of the "sponsor" he says.
The Purple, where the victim spent a few evenings, like that of June 22, 2018, just before being kidnapped in the parking lot of his residence, in Vanves.
Monday, the victim told the jurors how three men threw themselves on her when she had just parked her TMax, around 3 am.
A detonation sounded and in no time, the young man was thrown into the trunk of a Clio, tied up.
Then the kidnappers carried him from Essonne to Val-de-Marne, from Corbeil to Valenton, to Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne), then again to Valenton… The hostage remained prisoner for almost fifteen hours.
A ransom of 60,000 euros
Taken to a wood, he had the fear of his life.
Youssef K., designated as the chief of operations, recounted the scene on Tuesday: “We asked him to undress, he refused.
We give him a shot or two, we make the video”.
A video showing the victim in his underpants, hands tied, a gun to his temple, his face bleeding and surrounded by his jailers, posted via Snapchat to the hostage's brother.
With a ransom demand of 60,000 euros.
“Afterwards, we put him back in the car and we went to Corbeil, to Tarterêts.
The brother, he did not answer.
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The interested party discovered the images in the morning, was called and heard that for lack of ransom, one finger of his brother would be cut off every half hour.
Frightened, he tried to collect some money but changed his mind to go to the police station.
Then, shortly before 7 p.m., the victim arrived at the Boissy-Saint-Léger police station, bleeding and in panic.
Earlier, the young man was able to escape from the car then parked in Valenton, after a passerby saw him locked inside.
His captors had just gone away.
“When we realized that the neighbor was calling the police, we fled,” Youssef continues from the box, insisting that it was he and his accomplices who freed the hostage.
Pressed to say who the sponsor is, the accused firmly opposed it: "Everyone here is afraid to say his name," he says.
Even the victim and his brother.
“They know who it is, assures Youssef.
Me, I was told that the victim had a debt too.
What the investigation did not bring to light.
