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The Lyon Assize Court began to unfold the two years of investigation "summarized" in the 132 pages of the indictment.
The testimony of the two directors of investigation of the PJ this Thursday made it possible to illustrate the violence of the arson which occurred on February 9, 2019 in a bakery at 125 route de Vienne, which had reached the floor, fatally asphyxiating a young pregnant woman and her four-year-old daughter.
And to insist on the calamitous financial situation of the business launched two months earlier by two partners accused of having fomented an insurance scam by sponsoring this disaster, which they have always denied.
Seasoned traders, Zouhaier B. and Zouhir H., both from Djerba in Tunisia, decided in 2018 to take over the pharmacy at 125 route de Vienne to make it a bakery called ZZ, and joined forces for 5000 euros each, not to mention borrowings.
The fifty-somethings know each other for having already worked together, the first owning several businesses in which he invests and places trusted men.
The strong competition in the district, with five bakeries, two of which also belong to Zouhaier B., does not dampen the two partners.
tough competition
However, they will quickly become disillusioned.
From the very opening, on November 28, since the partners were unable to find a baker.
They are going to bring in the one from another bakery in Zouhaier B. Fate persists and on December 2, a ram truck crashes into the window of ZZ, forcing ten days of closure.
What followed was hardly better, customers were rare and there were many unsold items.
So much so that the baker finally recruited, without an employment contract, has to reduce production.
ZZ does not sell, everyone says so, sellers like bankers.
When the employees ask the bosses for their salaries, they reply that there is no money.
And for good reason, on the day of the fire, the trade shows a debit balance of 18,000 euros according to the investigators and presents many unpaid.
By the very admission of the son of an accused, this installation is a mistake.
Especially since the bakery at Elsa, also run by a shopkeeper from the Tunisian community, is particularly successful in the neighborhood.
Attempts by the defense during the first hearings to steer towards a settling of accounts with this competitor thus seemed doomed to failure.
This establishment, despite the initial concern of its boss and his decision to open on Sundays like ZZ, did not ultimately experience a drop in turnover.
Multiplication of the price of buns
On the other hand, it is attested that on December 28, the partners increased their insurance policy bringing the level of capital reimbursement from 30,000 to 160,000 euros, after an initial refused request of 200,000 euros.
With particular attention to fire claims.
They then quickly renew the fire extinguishers and the day before the tragedy compel themselves to visit other premises as required by the new contract.
While compensation is based on turnover, the latter is artificially inflated, according to investigators who discovered account anomalies from the end of December.
With skyrocketing prices on receipts: 4 euros per baguette, 7 euros per can.
Moreover, the compensation was in progress at the time of the indictment of the defendants.
Difficult neighborhood
Since the beginning of the investigation, the latter have categorically refuted any attempt at fraud.
And deny having ordered the fire.
They point to the episode of the ram truck as well as the burning of two vehicles just in front of their business on February 5 as destructive impulses of their competitors.
In particular from the Chez Elsa bakery, on which Zouhaier had launched the rumor that his boss wanted to set ZZ on fire.
Rumor that has not been confirmed by the police investigation.
Traders and neighbors mentioned a very degraded climate in the Grand Trou district due to the many traffics that occur there.
In 2018, several dozen cars were burned there, while the intimidation of traders had become the hallmark of
A debt-ridden arsonist
What is new, however, according to the police, is that Zouhir H takes away on the evening of February 9, for the first time in several weeks of operation, the slips of the day, with an artificially inflated turnover.
A process that Adel B., the alleged arsonist, used to carry out in his Guillotière bakery, in great financial difficulty.
It was this debt-ridden man, with whom the two associates were having increasingly frequent telephone conversations, who appeared by the back door of the ZZ bakery, overlooking rue Antoine Fonlupt on the evening of February 9.
He is restless and carrying a trash can, according to CCTV footage.
Trash that will be found burnt in the oven room at the back of the shop, while
"War Scene"
The fire-explosive section of the scientific police of Écully quickly confirms a voluntary act.
And the use of a super fuel of the type solvent or firelighter, very inflammable, with a simple lighter.
A very common translucent yellow plastic lighter, similar models of which were found at Adel B. Pharmacy purchases that night and the anti-burn ointment, but above all the DNA traces on the keyring forgotten on the spot, accredit the suspicions towards Adel B. Just like his flight to Djerba the next day via Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport where he is filmed with the burns seen by his son, his employee the night before, but also many witnesses who see him in the opposite direction for a few minutes later.
In defense of the managers,
Sentenced to 15 years in prison in Tunisia, Adel B., whose phone stopped near the bakery and received help from relatives that evening, said he came to borrow flour from the ZZ bakery, in agreement with the manager, but seeing a hooded man and then an explosion.
According to the police, he must have been surprised by "
a huge blast and backfire which, according to the expert, necessarily burned the arsonist in the face and arm
".
"
A war scene more than a crime scene
", describes the director of the PJ at the time.
When she arrived around midnight on Friday February 9, the fire was extinguished but the façade bore "
the marks of a very violent explosion
".
“
The ground on the first floor has collapsed in the bakery, the roof is charred and there are remains of burnt framework
".
So much so that the findings are not made inside that evening but from the firefighters' basket.
It is from there that the investigators will see the bodies.
One. Two ?
They distinguish them badly.
It is the autopsy, concluding in death by carbon monoxide poisoning which will draw up the sad balance sheet of the death of Ana, four years old and her mother Clara, nine months pregnant with a male fetus of 3.3 kilos.
