Puteaux: prosecuted for an offence that does not exist

In pre-trial detention for more than a year, Semmy H. is due to be tried on July 19 for attempting to kidnap a man in Puteaux, on the edge of the Pablo-Picasso district of Nanterre, on April 10, 2022.

At the time, the defendant, 44, was recently released from prison. His extensive criminal record includes seven convictions for drug trafficking. And according to what emerges from the investigation, the forty-year-old wanted to recover a deal point lost during his incarceration.

It is in this context that he would have appeared, with two other suspects, rue Marcelin-Berthelot in Puteaux, in front of a laundromat that would shelter trafficking. According to witnesses to the scene, some of whom took photos, after a fight that left the victim on the ground and bloodied, she was dragged to the attackers' car. Who tried to put it in the trunk but the intervention of passers-by interrupted them.

"The court simply followed the law"

It is therefore for attempted kidnapping that the investigation was opened and it is also for this offence that Semmy H. was indicted. An offence classified as a crime, therefore judged by the Assize Court. But at the end of the investigations, the judge requalified this failed kidnapping to send Semmy H. back to the criminal court for attempted kidnapping with release before the 7th day. Except that if the offense of kidnapping with release before the 7th day exists, this is not the case of the attempt of this same offense.

This Thursday, during a relay hearing, Semmy H.'s lawyer, Fabien Arakelian, raised the flaw to request the release of his client. After more than an hour of deliberation, the judges ruled that "the offence for which (the accused) is referred is not provided for" in the Criminal Code. As a result, the man was placed under judicial control until trial.

"The court simply did law and respected the law. You can't be kept in detention for an offense that doesn't exist, it's as simple as that," Arakelian said.