"I should have stopped, it would never have happened...", stammered the young man with a neatly trimmed beard, dressed in a t-shirt and a black jogging. Aged 20, Samih Z. appears this Wednesday before the judicial court of Beauvais for "unintentional injuries with disability not exceeding three months per driver of a land motor vehicle", "manifestly deliberate violation of an obligation of safety or prudence" and "rebellion".
On May 28, around 18:50 p.m., Samih Z. was riding in the Argentine neighborhood on his Yamaha motocross, a 250 cubic centimeters bought two months earlier, accompanied by another biker. Lacking license plates, headlights, turn signals and speedometer, the vehicles were quickly spotted by the crew of the Anti-Crime Squad (BAC) who were patrolling in an unmarked car.
"We almost lost our child"
"I recognized the police so I turned around because I knew I wasn't in good standing so I didn't want them to arrest me," he said in a hesitant voice. To sow the officials, Samih Z. enters a pedestrian path near the Henri Baumont college. "I passed between two concrete studs, and there I saw the little boy come out to my right... But it was too late to stop me," he says, his face almost obscured by his thick-framed glasses. Leo, 8, was leaving a family meal with his parents when he was mowed down by Samih Z.'s vehicle and dragged for several meters, according to the account recorded in the police report. Immediately, Anthony P., the father of the little victim, rushes at the driver to prevent him from fleeing. Faced with the police officers who try to arrest him, Samih Z. "moves, refuses to be handcuffed, kicks, and resists significantly," reports the crew of the BAC. Next to it, the boy "seems to convulse under the pain and has a large wound very bleeding on the head," says the court. "He suffers from skin lesions requiring surgery in the operating room" and a double fracture to his skull.
"The neurosurgeon told us that within two millimeters, his injuries would have been fatal," says Leo's father. "For now, we have to be extremely careful that he does not hit his head." If two months after the accident, the boy has found the family cocoon, he can not enjoy the summer break like all the other children. "Because of his fractured skull, he is condemned to do nothing, even the slide is forbidden to him. He cries because it's difficult to understand at 8 years old, "says Anthony P. before looking at the respondent who stares at the ground: "He may recognize that it is serious, it does not seem to me to have sufficiently printed that we almost lost our child."
'Error' and 'unconsciousness'
"I regret what I did. I think about it all the time. I have a little brother and if it had happened to him... It's shocking, it's serious," repeats the young man, who tested negative for alcohol and drugs on the day of the accident. Not enough to convince the prosecutor of the Republic of Beauvais, Caroline Tharot: "When we listen to you, we have the impression that it is the fault of no luck, the fatality that fell on him. Don't you have a motorcycle license?" she asks. Samih Z.'s embarrassed response: "No." "So you don't have a license but you have a motorcycle. It is not insured, but you drive with it in the city, on a sidewalk. What did you do to avoid the accident?" Samih Z. contrite: "Nothing." Me Marc Baclet, the lawyer of Leo's parents, adds: "Why was that day Leo smashed by a young person? The cause of the accident is more than unconsciousness. And the responsibility of Samih Z.'s parents in all this? They should have banned him from using this vehicle." For her part, the lawyer of the respondent, Me Domitille Risbourg, pleads "error. He was caught running away from the police and the accident happened. But he measures the significance of his actions and he does not minimize them at all. Before, my client was passionate about motorcycling, today he hesitates to get back on a two-wheeler one day. Mr. Risbourg also wishes to emphasize that the accident did not take place as part of a "wild rodeo" as the mayor of the City had written in a Facebook post.
While the public prosecutor requires a sentence of thirty months in prison, including six months with a probationary suspension of two years, Me Domitille Risbourg asks for a little leniency for this young holder of a baccalaureate pro electricity, without judicial record, having received once a reminder to law, in August 2022, for having been arrested in possession of a tear gas canister. The court eventually sentenced him to twenty-four months in prison, sixteen months of which were suspended for two years with an obligation to work or seek employment. The eight months are arranged in the form of a house arrest under electronic bracelet. Samih Z. also received a cancellation of his driver's licence with a ban on retaking it for eight months, and a driving ban for the same period of time.