Le Figaro Marseille
Two young men will be tried on June 8 before the Avignon criminal court for having violently attacked the mayor of Péage-de-Roussillon in Isère and his family and uttering racist remarks to one of them.
After two days in police custody and a release, Siméon S. and Hugo H., aged 18 and 21 respectively, were called to the stand this Friday as part of an immediate appearance procedure.
Twelve victims have filed a civil suit in this case for acts of violence amounting to up to ten days of total incapacity for work, one of them having been hit with a beer bottle.
The facts date back to December 21, in the city center of Avignon.
The defendants are accused of having hit the civil parties knowing that one of them, wearing a tricolor cockade at the time of the events, was an elected official of the Republic.
According to investigators, Hugo H. also insulted the mayor’s daughter with these words:
“You are black.
You are not legitimate in France.
My heart hurts that your father is white and that he had a child with a black woman.”
Read also “This attack is racist”, says the daughter of the Isère mayor beaten up in Avignon
“An overly publicized affair”
according to the defense
The mayor of Péage-de-Roussillon filed a complaint a few days later and revealed the affair in the press, notably by testifying on BFMTV.
Both defendants have clean criminal records.
On the stand, Hugo H. deplored
“an overly publicized affair of which we only know part”
.
“I would not have suspected that the media dimension of this affair could have so much influence on the way in which the investigation would be carried out
,” added their lawyer Mr. Mathieu Sassi.
“We have a defense which consists of saying that we did nothing, that we are good people in every respect, victims of a family conspiracy committed against us,”
the lawyer for the civil parties was indignant, Me Jacques Thoizet
.
It is said that there is only one version that has been collected, only that of others and by mine.
If they are victims, all they had to do was file a complaint!”
The court accepted Hugo H. and Siméon S.'s request for adjournment to have time to prepare their defense, and their request for an order for additional information, in particular the hearing of part of the parties civil conflicts and a confrontation with the daughter of the mayor of Péage-de-Roussillon.