“I saw my brother dying. » It was through his words that Kamal Hajjaj, 30, explained why he had fired from his car towards a group of men in Béziers (Hérault), on July 16, 2019. A 26-year-old man sitting on a bench, friend of the accused and apparently stranger to the conflict between these men, was fatally shot in the Devèze district.
During the trial, Kamal Hajjaj, who then ran a tea room in the center of Béziers and lived with his mother, tried to explain his actions. He wrongly believed his brother Karim was close to death, after he was injured in an argument with two acquaintances, brothers Mohamed and Rachid Lazgah. “I rushed, I imagined my brother on the ground in the square and perhaps I made a film for myself,” he declared in court, quoted by Free Midday.
Guilty of “murder”
Did he intend to kill someone by shooting that day? The Hérault Assize Court answered “yes”. She found him guilty of “murder” and sentenced him this Friday to 15 years in prison.
The attorney general had earlier requested the reclassification of the charge from “murder”, punishable by 30 years in prison, to that of “intentional violence leading to death without intention of causing it”, punishable by a maximum of 20 years.
The representative of the public prosecutor had requested 15 years of detention, the sentence which was finally imposed on her after eight hours of deliberation.
The Lazgah brothers also condemned
In its verdict, the Assize Court was also much more severe than the public prosecutor towards the Lazgah brothers, tried alongside it.
The jury considered that Rachid Lazgah had committed attempted murder by shooting in the direction of Kamal Hajjaj’s car, who was fleeing, and sentenced him to 12 years’ imprisonment. The attorney general, ruling out attempted murder for lack of evidence, had called for a six-year sentence for attempted extortion.
His brother Mohamed, who appeared free, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for extortion and burning a vehicle, although the prosecution had requested five years against him.
The three men have 10 days to appeal their conviction.
2023-09-30 09:19:58
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