Three days after being sentenced to six years in prison in Bastia, François Cay was sentenced to 5 years in prison by the Ajaccio court in another narcotics case. Judged in immediate appearance this Friday, he was arrested last Monday in possession of 10 kilos of cannabis.
“You are sentenced to five years in prison with continued detention and a fine of 15,000 euros.”
Behind the glass of his box, François Cay attends impassively the judgment pronounced against him by the president of the correctional court of Ajaccio.
This Friday, April 15, the 37-year-old man with salt and pepper hair was tried in immediate appearance for “unauthorized transport, possession and acquisition of narcotics”.
On Monday April 11, he was arrested during a roadside check in Ajaccio, while driving on Avenue du Maréchal Juin, at the entrance to the Monte è Mare residence.
After searching the vehicle and “felt a strong odor”the police found a sports bag containing 10.3 kilos of cannabis.
“As soon as Mr. Cay gets out of the vehicle, he spontaneously indicates that he is not the owner of the carexplains the president of the court, Jacques Lafosse. When searching the safe, which Mr. Cay opens spontaneously, a strong smell characteristic of cannabis arises. Spontaneously, Mr. Cay declares that he has narcotics. There is indeed a sports bag. Mr. Cay specifies that it is cannabis and that there must have been ten kilos.”
In the front passenger seat of the vehicle – which the defendant indicates “having rented” -, the police also find 6,000 euros in cash in a bag, as well as two mobile phones. “For one of the two, you refused to give the access code”, notes the president. Which is worth to François Cay to be also prosecuted for “refusal to hand over to the judicial authorities or to implement the secret agreement for the decryption of a means of cryptology”.
Placed under a warrant since his arrest, the 30-year-old holder of a BEP accounting appears alone in the box. Surrounded by two police officers and dressed in a pink polo shirt, he listens to the president recalling his criminal record.
“You were sentenced on February 27, 2014 by the Marseilles court to three years’ imprisonment, one of which was suspended, for transporting and possessing narcotics. You are therefore in legal recidivism. You were placed on parole in May 2016.”
This Tuesday, April 12, the day after his arrest in Ajaccio, the Bastia court also delivered its deliberation in another case concerning him for drug trafficking between Corsica and the Continent.
“While you were in custody, emphasizes the President, you have been sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment for drug trafficking and a fine of 60,000 euros with a warrant of deposit with deferred effect.”
In the process, President Lafosse returns to the arrest of François Cay last Monday in Ajaccio and the cannabis found in the vehicle he was driving. On the contents of the bag, the defendant who lives in a hotel room in Biguglia indicates “to have done a service, without knowing what was in it”. And to add, lowering his mask: “I had to go down to Ajaccio, I had some shopping to do.”
“You didn’t ask yourself any questions about the bag, but you say that during the trip, halfway, you smelled the same characteristic odor that the police smelled. And at that time, you didn’t turn around?”asks the president.
- “I was halfway there, I thought to myself, now that I’m here”answers François Cay.
- (President) “To that time, you know you are carrying cannabis?”
- (F. Cay) “I understood.”
- (President) “You continue while you know what you are exposing yourself to; you consciously become a “mule”, and you go on your way. You don’t tell us much, including who gave you the bag and who you were supposed to give it to.”
The president also points to the fact that his phone “confined several times to Ajaccio before the day of his arrest“.
“You told the investigators that you had been in Bastia for three days. However, your phone was there, in Ajaccio, on April 9, 6, 3. As for the two cell phones found in your car, you caused no difficulty in giving the code for the first one. For the second, you first had this meaningful explanation : “this is for my personal use”.It belongs to a colleague who forgot it in the car”replies the defendant.
Regarding the 6,000 euros found, François Cay, who receives 900 euros each month in allowance for disabled adults (AAH), explains “that a friend told him lent this money for a week for a surgical operation at the beginning of May in Nîmes”.
His lawyer, Maître Laetitia Padovani, then asks him “if he has cash inflows to come” : “Yes, the sale of an apartment in Paris which should bring me 60,000 euros. This is how I’m going to repay the friend who lent me the money.”
The president continues and evokes the point of delivery of the sports bag which, according to the defendant, was located “in front of the Sanguinaires cemetery”. “You say you made a mistake by wrongly entering Avenue du Maréchal Juin and standing at the entrance to this residence to turn around. The police didn’t see you do a U-turn. They arrested you in front of the barrier of the residence.”
“It wasn’t a traffic stop, disputes François Cay. The police arrived from all sides armed. They pulled me out of the car, pointed their guns at me, and handcuffed me without discussion. So it wasn’t really a traffic stop, it was an arrest.”
“It was a check to see if there were any offences, particularly on narcotics, replies the president. You are not accused of a traffic violation, far from it, it is much more serious.”
At the start of the hearing, the defense of François Cay also filed conclusions of nullity concerning the terms of this “control at the request of the public prosecutor”. The prosecutor, Geoffrey Makan, requested the rejection of these findings of nullity. “I note that what is raised there is not in the current state of the law.“
In his indictment, the prosecutor first highlighted the increase in drug seizures. “They’re soaring, the traffickers are gorging”he says before returning to the arrest of François Cay: “A muscular arrest with “handcuffing” and robbery? On the contrary, it is the reverse. It was a check that led, first of all, to a check on Mr. Cay, then a search, then his arrest. No more no less. And in this arrest report, this gentleman will say very quickly that there are about ten kilos of hash in the trunk. Mr Cay will then refuse to sign this report. But that doesn’t take anything away from it. If you look in detail, you will see, in fact, that he was aware that there were large quantities of narcotics in this bag..”
While recalling that the defendant was “summoned next July to Ajaccio for another narcotics case, then appealed to the assizes “(he had been acquitted during the trial of the assassination against Jean-Michel German), the representative of the public prosecutor’s office concluded his indictment as follows: “Mr. Cay does not have the will to reintegrate. He prefers to make this delinquent way of life his way of life because it’s juicier. What interests him is easy money and living above the law. When you do the timeline of his criminal record, he lives for the traffic. I ask you to be intractable with him.”
The prosecutor asked against him for 6 years in prison, his continued detention and a fine of 15,000 euros. On the other hand, he asked for the release concerning the offense on the refusal to give the code of one of the two mobile phones.
On the side of the defense of François Cay, the pleading, provided by the trainee magistrate Elisa Burgues, highlights the fact “that he consistently denies being aware of the contents of the bag since it was received”.
“He says he wanted to stupidly help and was dupedshe continues. He subsequently admitted having smelled a suspicious odor and therefore suspected that the contents of the bag were in dispute. He explains that he had no choice but to want to get rid of the contents of the bag by putting it back as he had been asked.”
“If you are entering the sentencing process, I will ask you to individualize his sentence taking into account his pathologies and the fact that there is doubt about his true intention in this case.”
The defense of François Cay
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For defense, other elements can “cast doubt on the criminal intent of François Cay”in particular on the factthat he has not received any financial compensation”. For the 6000 euros found in cash, Elisa Burgues mentions that they “must be used for his transfer to the hospital of Nîmes where he must undergo a very important surgical operation”.
“He has several pathologies, she adds: diabetes, severe sleep apnea and he suffers from obesity that can be described as morbid. Hence the urgency of this operation scheduled for May 2 for which he has a medical certificate.
After requesting the release of François Cay, Elisa Burgues concludes: “if you are going to be sentenced, I will ask you to individualize his sentence by taking into account his pathologies and the fact that there is doubt about his true intention in this case. And therefore to bring it back to a more proportionate sentence than that requested by the prosecution. In order to allow him to go to his operation in fifteen days, I will therefore ask you for a deposit mandate with deferred effect..”
If, at the beginning of the week, the Bastia court had agreed to postpone his detention, this was not the case this Friday in Ajaccio where the defendant was sentenced to 5 years in prison with continued detention and 15,000 euros fine. For the court,the urgency of his surgery is not medically proven“.
François Cay has ten days to appeal this judgment.
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