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Aubervilliers drama: the victims do not blame the 12-year-old arsonist

2021-05-20T13:33:02.647Z


The 19-year-old who started the fire seven years ago causing the death of three people in Aubervilliers is appearing since


There is only pain in his eyes.

That of the mourning that Maria still does not manage to make despite the seven years which have just passed.

His only daughter Soukaina died defenestrated at the age of 25 in the fire in her building in Aubervilliers.

He is one of the three people who died in this drama.

The mother came especially from Morocco to attend this Monday and Tuesday the trial of the arsonist at the Bobigny children's court (Seine-Saint-Denis).

This 12-year-old kid, now 19, is there a few meters from her.

No anger or hatred when she looks at him.

Just suffering.

Mbarek, Maria's brother-in-law, is also not there to overwhelm Brahim

(his name has been changed)

.

"He's a victim too in a way," he manages to smile.

The boy had set a stroller on fire in the hall of the building.

The whole of the wooden staircase was set ablaze up to the seventh floor.

"Like a fireplace", describes Soukaina's uncle, on the sidelines of this trial which is being held behind closed doors.

For him, this audience must be “symbolic”.

At 11, the son of a victim wants to testify at the bar

Maria wants to know exactly what happened. As if that could help him. But her daughter just tried to escape the flames. She hung from the window of her apartment before letting go, exhausted. Mohamed, Soukaina's companion, did not survive this fire either. He died three days later. Person of his family to represent him during the trial. His relatives live in Egypt and with the Covid, it is difficult to get a visa.

Among the civil parties, there are also relatives of Salimata, who died at 23 when she threw herself out of the window when she was seven months pregnant. Her companion and her best friend who had hosted her for two weeks are present. The victim's 11-year-old boy expressed a wish to speak about his mother on Tuesday in court. If this is the case, this speech would find a rather poignant echo vis-à-vis the accused who was almost the same age when he committed the irreparable.

Brahim arrived this Monday morning from Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône).

After the fire, he had been placed in a home, like his little brother.

And never really recovered from the drama.

At the bar, according to his lawyer Marlène Viallet, he admitted the facts.

He set that stroller on fire.

Seven years later, he still doesn't know why he did this.

All this overtook him and obviously he did not measure the consequences of his actions.

Virginie Marquès, the lawyer for those close to Soukaina, encouraged him to express himself more.

"It's difficult for him to find the words, analyzes the defendant's lawyer.

He's trying to write a letter.

He is in great pain at having taken people's lives.

"

"This humanity of the civil parties will perhaps help him to move forward"

The 12-year-old former teenager was also questioned about his family situation at the time.

His mother who had left him and his brother two weeks before the fire.

Obvious emotional and educational deficiencies.

During the investigation, an expert psychologist made the connection between these families on fire and that of Brahim who was also symbolically.

"A huge waste for everyone", summarizes Virginie Marquès.

In most trials, the feeling of guilt on the part of the accused or the accused is rarely heard by relatives of the victims.

Not here.

"There was shared suffering," felt the young man's lawyer.

This humanity of the civil parties will perhaps help him to move forward.

"It also shows that justice can have a restorative aim and not only punitive", underlines Virginie Marquès.

Justice that is also desperately slow. The investigation has been completed since 2018. Audience problems, as well as a postponement because of the Covid, lead to a 12-year-old defendant being tried at 19. While Brahim will undoubtedly be sentenced at the end of the trial, no penal sanction can be imposed on him because of his age at the material time. If he had been of age, he would have incurred life imprisonment.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2021-05-20

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