Two men, including Nicolas Bras, a former escapee from Fresnes, were sentenced to 15 and 10 years' imprisonment and a third was acquitted on Friday by the Seine-et-Marne Assize Court for burglaries in the Paris region in 2019 .
Nicolas Bras, 33, designated during the investigation as the leader, was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment without a security period for "
extortion with a weapon
" and "
forcible confinement
".
"Acquittal for the benefit of the doubt"
A second defendant, aged 27, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The third man prosecuted was acquitted.
Ten years were required against him.
“
This acquittal for the benefit of the doubt is proof of sound justice
”, reacted to AFP his lawyer Me Robin Binsard, referring to the absence of “
serious incriminating element
” against his client.
The three men were accused of having committed, from April to July 2019, five "
homejackings
", burglaries in the presence of the owners, in the Paris region, while Nicolas Bras was on the run.
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At the end of 2018, he escaped from Fresnes prison (Val-de-Marne) by climbing the walls.
After nine months on the run, he was arrested at Perpignan station during a check.
Several times convicted for robberies and extortion with weapons, he was classified DPS, for a particularly guarded detainee, because he had already escaped twice in 2016, from a police station, then from the Créteil court.
In Melun, he appeared since Monday detained in execution of a previous sentence.
His co-defendants were in pre-trial detention.
In April 2019, the series of burglaries with the same modus operandi began in the town of Vaires-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne).
Threatened by a tear gas canister
Around 11:00 p.m., they break into a pavilion and surprise a couple quietly seated in front of the television.
Threatened by a tear gas canister, a handgun and a knife, the owners are forced to indicate where the cash is.
They are then locked in a room with their two children.
The criminals flee with a hundred euros, a wedding ring and a computer.
Two similar burglaries were committed in seven days in the neighboring town of Pomponne.
They then moved to Yvelines and Oise.
Credit card codes were systematically extorted.
The total damage from the burglaries was not assessed during the investigation.
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