Christopher Aouni, presented as a figure of Marseille narcobanditry and indicted in five murder cases, has been on trial since Thursday January 26 for a first settlement of accounts committed in 2018 in a poor district of the second city of France.
Light shirt under a suit jacket, glasses and three-day beard, Christopher Aouni, nicknamed "
Chico
", declared " to
maintain his position
" at the opening of his trial before the Assize Court of Bouches-du-Rhône, along with two other defendants.
"
He is combative: he is not in the idea of denying but of demonstrating that he is not the author of the shooting
", explained to AFP one of his lawyers, Me Amar Bouaou, of the Paris bar, which intends to rely in particular on "
a tedious work of telephony
" to try to prove it.
Miscellaneous charges
A 37-year-old Vitrollais, Chistopher Aouni presents himself as a sports educator, acknowledging having engaged in car trafficking and with already more than 15 mentions on his record, in particular for aggravated theft.
But the ongoing investigations and this trial draw a profile of a completely different magnitude, Christophe Aouni being under the scope of five warrants of committal in criminal cases, and in particular in the investigation relating to a double execution in the parking lot of a shopping center in 2016 in Marseille or the death of the drug trafficker "
Ronaldo
", in March 2020 in Garges-lès-Gonesse, in Val-d'Oise.
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He is also suspected of having killed in September 2018 in the parking lot of the Martigues hospital (Bouches-du-Rhône) one of his former friends, who accompanied his wife to give birth.
A few hours later, he himself was the victim of an assassination attempt and was arrested that day, shot in the shoulder.
Testimonies Compromised for Fear of Retaliation
This is his first appearance in these cases of alleged settling of scores, against the backdrop of a clan war in drug trafficking which still claimed around thirty victims in Marseille in 2022. Justice suspects him here of the death of Saci Labidi, 29, killed in an associative office in the Consolat city, in the 15th arrondissement, on March 24, 2018.
Two witnesses summoned to appear warned Monday that they would not come.
One, brother of the victim and civil party, explained that he was afraid of reprisals, according to his lawyer Me Fabien Perez.
The second, half-brother of Chistopher Aouni, "
will not come for security reasons
", justified the latter in the box of the accused placed for the occasion under very high surveillance.
The accused is himself the subject of a measure of isolation in prison for security reasons.
The trial is due to last until February 3.