Sentences of 22 years of criminal imprisonment were required Thursday, December 1 at the assizes of Seine-Saint-Denis in a fatal shooting case in Pantin in 2019, against a backdrop of drug trafficking.
"
What can we do, we, in our black dresses (...) to fight against this
law of silence?", Launched Elsa Jacquemin, the general counsel, confiding her feeling of "
powerlessness
” in the face of tongues that were no more untied during the investigation than during five days of trial in Bobigny.
“Criminal law” stronger than “city law”
“
Criminal law must be stronger than the law of the city
”, she however hammered.
She thus requested 22 years of criminal imprisonment against the two defendants: the alleged shooter, 30, who admitted to being the perpetrator, and his 41-year-old accomplice who has always denied any involvement.
On the evening of February 12, 2019 in the Scandicci district of Pantin, a place known as a narcotics point of sale, a 27-year-old man was shot dead in a shooting, which also seriously injured him.
The modus operandi of the crime and an open conflict between the victim and the alleged sponsor, who did not appear at the trial, quickly steered the investigators towards a settling of scores caused by a turf war between traffickers.
Read alsoBetween serious crime and drug trafficking, Nantes in the spiral of violence
It is "
a case in which fear and pressure have been constant
", recalled Wednesday Me Jessica Belhassen, the victims' lawyer.
The case is essentially based on anonymous information and very few witnesses came to the stand.
Even the accused who fired the shots kept quiet for fear of reprisals.
“
He is a man to whom we give sweaters and kebabs, he is not a hitman
”, for his part launched Me Servane Crosnier to defend his client.
Skinned by life, homeless, already convicted of "
theft
", he shot "
like a cowboy
" without having intended to kill, she argued.
For his part, Me Romain Boulet, lawyer for the co-accused suspected of complicity, pleaded for release, highlighting "
the absence of flagrant evidence
" concerning his client.
The verdict, initially scheduled for Friday, will be delivered in the evening.
