Three years after the murder of police officer Éric Masson, shot dead at a deal point in the heart of Avignon, his killer, Ilias Akoudad, was sentenced to 30 years in prison with a two-thirds security sentence, this Friday , by the Vaucluse Assize Court.
On Thursday, the prosecution requested a life sentence with a safety period of 22 years, emphasizing the “dangerousness” of the accused and the need to “protect society”.
Twenty-two years old, the exact age of Ilias Akoudad.
In the box, the young man remained bent double during the almost two-hour indictment, invisible to the public made up of dozens of police officers.
“Éric Masson was executed without warning, by an individual drunk with violence, proud of the gesture accomplished”, and, for the magistrate, his confessions were “perfectly orchestrated”.
“You will not be fooled by this big, very big string,” insisted Florence Galtier, addressing the jurors: for her, it was “absolutely impossible” to mistake these two police officers for competing dealers.
A confession at the last moment
After denying for almost three years, the accused finally admitted on Monday, in the face of a damning case, to having shot Éric Masson, on May 5, 2021, in the heart of Avignon.
But he maintained that he did not realize that this 36-year-old man was in fact an undercover police officer, present to monitor street deals.
“I asked him a question:
Are you selling?
I’m an idiot, I wanted to look good,” he tried to explain on Wednesday.
Also read “I wish Mr. Masson was still alive”: the accused apologizes to the family of the killed police officer
Ilias Akoudad was prosecuted for murder with the aggravating circumstance that the victim is a person holding public authority, and for attempted murder, still against a police officer, the colleague of Éric Masson.
“Spare me the false regrets”
As the civil party's lawyers pointed out, in this case it is not so much the sentence that will be observed as the criminal qualification: "We want this quality of police officer to be recognized", Mr. Philippe Expert insisted on Wednesday in his pleading, measuring the oh so “painful” and “complicated” task of the court, which will have to decide the fate of a young man who risks “immurement for life”.
On Wednesday, at the invitation of his lawyer, the Lille tenor Me Frank Berton, Ilias Akoudad spoke to the father of Éric Masson, himself a former police officer: “I apologize to him, the words are very weak”.
On the benches, the police officer's mother, the widow, mother of their two daughters, the sister and the brother did not react.
“Spare me the false regrets,” said the father, Marc Masson, on Tuesday in his only speech.