If it is not you, it is therefore your brother… It is with an unprecedented dilemma that the Assize Court of Val-d'Oise will be confronted from this Monday: a weapon, a DNA, a testimony … But two potential shooters with identical features and DNA.
Mohamed and Karl T., 25-year-old twins, are on trial for five days for three assassination attempts committed in the summer of 2017 in Cergy.
If they deny the facts, their common DNA was found on the weapon used in two of the three shootings.
But the scientists, confronted with “monozygotic twins”, could not determine if this DNA belongs to Mohamed or to Karl T. New techniques, expensive, allow it however.
As for the testimony of the first victim, it also comes up against the striking resemblance between the two boys.
Summer 2017 is tense in the heart of the Saint-Christophe district.
In the background, according to investigators, "the desire of some to establish their stranglehold on drug trafficking".
On August 14, Basile
(the first name has been changed)
is driving with his friend, professional footballer Moussa Dembélé.
The 33-year-old is taken aback by his nickname and stops chatting when the situation escalates.
According to his account to investigators, Basil tries to flee but is held back by one of the twins.
The other arrives a few moments later, weapon in hand, and shoots several times in his direction.
“He had a gesture of survival, underlines his lawyer, Cédric Alépée.
He raised his arm and the bullet went through the limb as he was aimed at the head.
"Still" traumatized more than three years after the events ", Basile identifies his two attackers on a photographic plate: the man who prevented him from leaving the premises is Karl T.;
the shooter his brother, Mohamed T.
"Knowing who really did what is still essential"
Fifteen days later, new shots were fired in Saint-Christophe.
On September 2, in less than two hours, two acquaintances were shot and wounded.
Amadou
(the name has been changed)
is hit with a calf warhead and Ibrahima is hit by four projectiles on leaving his home.
Hospitalized, the two victims refuse to file a complaint and claim not to know their attackers.
Relatives of the victims and witnesses, however, put the investigators on the trail of the T. brothers, before expressing their doubts during the investigation.
On September 8, Mohamed T. was arrested during a simple check.
In a bag, the police discovered gloves stained with the DNA of the T. brothers and powder residue.
They mainly find two handguns: analyzes confirm that one of them was used during the shootings of September 2.
According to Mohamed T., this 9 mm is not his: if his DNA is on the weapon and the gloves, it is because he plunged his hand into the bag forgotten by a friend just before the arrival of the police officers.
In May 2018, the police finally found Karl T ... at the Bois-d'Arcy remand center where he had been imprisoned for 4 months.
He too denies any involvement in the series of settling of scores.
In a heavy context - the last two victims did not wish to become civil parties - justice will therefore have to establish the exact role of the two brothers.
If they are both accused of attempted assassinations, "knowing who really did what is still essential in a criminal case," underlines Frank Berton, the lawyer for one of the two T brothers. DNA does not allow us to find out.
The testimonies are no more useful as the brothers look alike: if we dress them in the same way and change their place in the box, the Assize Court will not even see it ... "
