"Please stop crying over your fate.
"Prosecutor Hélène Gerhards does not intend to be moved, this Monday morning at the Toulouse court, by the fate of the seventeen defendants who face her
(
Editor's note
: an 18th person is hospitalized)
.
The latter are tried for human trafficking, exploitation of begging and money laundering in an alleged case of modern slavery in the pink city, between December 2015 and June 2018.
"You are not credible for a single moment in the face of the file which demonstrates your involvement", launches the prosecution during its requisitions on the eighth day of the trial.
The sentences requested go up to 10 years in prison for four of the defendants.
For the others, Hélène Gerhards requires sentences ranging from three to nine years.
Poor slaves and extremely wealthy executioners
One inmate, the only one to appear free, is asked to spend a year in "convertible" prison, given that he "was the only one who had the courage to admit the facts, and that he made a lot of effort. integration in France ”.
Hélène Gerhards also requests that a final ban on French territory be pronounced against sixteen of the defendants.
The prosecutor portrays on one side people "in a deplorable state of health and hygiene, toothless, disabled, sleeping on plastic sheeting, beaten, deprived of their identity papers, and checked with bad purchased vodka. in Andorra ”.
On the other hand, defendants showing off on social networks "with luxury cars, sumptuous meals, bundles of banknotes and gold jewelry [...] who also say they are
poor beggars
".
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For the prosecution, the defendants “did not live in poverty as they claim.
The Gabardie camp, north-east of Toulouse, was their headquarters, their place of work.
From there, the latter controlled their beggars "who brought them each between 900 and 4000 euros per month, says Hélène Gerhards.
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This trial, heard over eight days and relocated outside the walls of the judicial court because of the number of defendants, lawyers and interpreters, has the particularity of being held without civil parties.
The victims had voluntarily returned to Bulgaria since the investigation began almost four years ago.
The verdict of the trial is expected Wednesday, after 10 days of hearing.
