Le Figaro Nantes
Just a few weeks ago, they were 17 years old;
today, they are 22 and 23 respectively. Despite their unexpected aging, they still look like two teenagers, these defendants who appear on Monday, February 19 in the dock of the Nantes criminal court.
With tousled hair, Sofiane says
“hello!”
cheerful to the audience;
his friend, Younes, a year his junior, appears more reserved and sullen.
This afternoon, the duo appears for theft and attempted aggravated theft, facts for which they were arrested in flagrante delicto, in Nantes, last Thursday.
Both are very well known to Nantes police officers.
The police arrested them twice in one week.
And half a dozen times in a month.
The pair can boast of having built a solid reputation among the police officers at the Nantes central police station, where an air of resignation and helplessness now floats towards them.
“
We haven’t known them for very long, these two are hellish
,” a police source
told Le
Figaro .
They are caravan drivers who are now well-known to colleagues.
We saw them pass by the police station on Wednesday then last Thursday, and twice again the previous week.
It’s a catastrophe, they benefit from a real feeling of impunity;
This has to stop at some point.”
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Without papers, under stamps
The well-rounded CV of these two defendants astounds the assembled magistrates.
“We have difficulty finding our way,”
notes the president of the court, Noémie Clergeau.
Prosecutor Bénédicte Michel highlights the
“particularly known in a particularly short period of time”
character of the duo.
The representative of the public prosecutor focuses less on the acts of arms than on the precarious living conditions of Sofiane and Younes, two young Algerians without employment or papers.
Both are subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), currently under dispute.
Both live on petty thefts, and forget themselves in the consumption of cannabis or lyrica – the
“poor man’s drug”
.
In view of the lies he has told about his age since he arrived on French territory, we can estimate that his (Younes') identity is difficult to verify and that he perhaps has other criminal records.
Bénédicte Michel, prosecutor
The magistrate does not paint the portrait of simple misfits, but rather of a pair of clever thieves.
Does Younes' criminal record only have one entry?
“In view of the lies he has told about his age since he arrived on French territory, we can estimate that his identity is difficult to verify and that he perhaps has other criminal records,”
suggests she said.
A concealment strategy put into practice by Sofiane, whose “numerous aliases”
the prosecutor recalled ,
some of whom have criminal records.
Neither of the two thieves explains the updating of their ages, except that it was for them to
“set things straight”
.
And, in fact, both recognize the facts for which they are appearing this Monday.
They broke into a home on Boulevard Raspail, a quiet area of Nantes.
It was last week, but the details are already foggy -
"the fault of the pills"
, explain the defendants.
They wanted to find somewhere to sleep, or something to eat.
They come face to face with the resident of the place, an elderly man with a disability, try to take money from him, then turn back, two pens in his pocket.
Tracked by investigators, they were arrested while attempting to break into a second house.
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"I have no-one.
I just have my god"
Sofiane assumes responsibility.
“
I steal
,” he retorts as simply as possible when the president asks him about his resources.
Arriving in France seven years ago, the young man is alone today, except for a cousin in Bordeaux, another in Spain and a sister who remained in Algeria.
"I have no-one.
I just have my god
,” he says.
And faith in his comrade.
Younes and Sofiane are expected to be tried in March in connection with other theft cases.
In view of their personal situation and the
“lack of prospect of integration”
, the prosecutor therefore requires eight months against Sofiane and Younes.
Their lawyers, however, are pleading for their release, recalling in particular the extreme precariousness of the two young people and the fact that lying about one's age is not enough to justify detention.
Finally, the deleterious spiral that would await them in prison was also raised, taking into account the time that the Nantes remand center is more than 180% full.
After deliberation, the court sentenced the two defendants to five months suspended sentence.
A judgment greeted with an exhortation of joy by Sofiane, who immediately raises her clasped hands to the sky, murmuring inaudible words, a smile on her lips.
“Next time, it’s over!”
, warns the president, raising her voice, by way of conclusion.
In pre-trial detention since Saturday, the two men were released on Monday afternoon.