The images of this lynching had shocked France.
On January 15, 2021, a 14-year-old young man was beaten by about fifteen individuals while he was on the ground.
Punch, kick, iron bar, hammer... It was with incredible violence that this gang attacked this teenager, then left for dead on the slab of Beaugrenelle, the roof of the shopping center of the 15th arrondissement of Paris.
This story is that of Yuriy, a young schoolboy born in 2006 in Ukraine and arrived three years later in France.
This Tuesday, March 28, four of the twelve alleged attackers appear before the juvenile court, behind closed doors.
The latter were aged 14 and 15 at the time of the events.
The trial of the other eight, over the age of 16 during the attack, is scheduled for December 4 to 22, 2023.
In 2021, the investigation had quickly shown that Yuriy had been the victim of a punitive expedition falling within a context of rivalry between “
young individuals residing in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, forming the RD4 gang on the one hand, and that of the Vanves plateau on the other hand
,” the investigating judge said at the time.
During his assault, a screwdriver was found on him.
"
It is established that the attack on Yuriy (...) was an act of revenge in response to the attack suffered
five days earlier by the half-brother and cousin of two of the respondents, according to the magistrate.
Indeed, on January 10, 2021, a 14-year-old boy was also molested by around fifteen young people from the RD4 gang at the port of Javel in the 15th arrondissement.
The victim had ended up in the emergency room, suffering from a broken finger and several wounds.
A complaint was finally filed on January 26 and an investigation opened.
If Yuriy was present during this first attack, he had not been indicted in the separate judicial information on these facts.
There was no doubt that he belonged to the wider RD4 gang.
His Instagram account name referring in particular to the group: "
yr.4fp
".
Nataliya K., his mother, had however defended his son with the
Figaro
: "
Having friends in a band does not mean being a member
", she had thus underlined at the time.
"
His screwdriver on him was just for art class, and he didn't hit that kid.
".
In any case, five days later, Yuriy was left for dead on the slab.
His critical condition had required a 10-day placement in an artificial coma and a month in hospital.
He suffered from numerous cranial fractures, broken arms, shoulders, fingers, nose and ribs.
Read alsoYuriy, dragged into the hell of teenage gangs
A total of thirteen people have been charged in connection with the case.
The police traced their traces thanks to the surveillance cameras of the Beaugrenelle slab and the metro, the demarcation of their telephones as well as messages posted on social networks.
After Yuriy's violent attack, some members of the Vanves plateau gang posted selfies on social networks showing weapons, in which we found these comments: "the job is over", "I lick
his
blood
"
.
None of the respondents had a criminal record, some were even described as uneventful.
If the latter ended up admitting having struck blows, they always defended themselves from having had the will to kill Yuriy.
Seven of them had been placed in pre-trial detention: an 18-year-old young man accused of carrying the hammer blows to the victim's head;
the half-brother of the victim of January 10, 2021, identified as the leader of the group;
another 16-year-old also identified as a leader;
a boy accused of severely beating the victim's head and a 17-year-old boy who photographed himself holding Yuriy's bloody phone like a trophy.
On January 16, 2023, one of the thirteen defendants saw his prosecution canceled by an investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal.
The teenagers who were over 16 at the time of the events will be tried later, in December 2023. Among the four young people referred to the juvenile court, two are for attempted murder, a third for complicity and a fourth for participation in a conspiracy.
If today Yuriy is better physically, “
he still has some anxieties from time to time.
But he is trying to be well
, ”assures Le
Figaro
Maître Szpiner.
The young boy and his parents, civil parties to the trial, want to "
try to understand how such savagery
" could have happened.
