The Seine-Saint-Denis Assize Court sentenced her 34-year-old ex-companion to 20 years in prison. He had stabbed Audrey Coignard, a medical student, in Saint-Ouen in 2019.
After three hours of deliberation, the court found Rifat Abbas, Sudanese now 34 years old, guilty of the murder of Audrey Coignard in September 2019, with the aggravating circumstance of having been her partner.
Very invested in helping migrants, it is through this that the intern of the Jean-Verdier hospital in Bondy from Normandy had met the accused. The couple had maintained a relationship which she had ended a few months before the tragedy.
She continued to host her ex-companion, in an irregular situation, but had asked him to return the keys to her on the evening of his death.
“The help she gave (to migrants) turned into friendship and we respected her for that”testified one of the migrants to whom she had come to the aid and now close to the family.
“She brought good to others so she did not see why we would hurt her”reported Wednesday at the bar the mother of the victim, a civil party alongside other family members.
“Very proud” of his daughter, the father, a former farmer, rented his “physical and mental strength” and his character “passionate”.
“Strong, sensitive, gentle, protective”, “with an incredible sense of friendship” and “full bloom” in his work: this is the portrait drawn at the bar by a close friend of the victim who saw him two days before his death.
Reconstructing the last moments of the young female medical student and understanding what prompted the accused to take action were at the heart of the trial.
Rifat Abbas, with personality “immature” according to the various parties, maintained a prostrate attitude during the four days of hearing.
“That she was an angel doesn’t make him the devil”, defended his lawyer Me Chloé Arnoux. In her argument, she called on the court to judge her client on the basis of his life “wretched” and the trauma suffered during his chaotic migratory journey through Libya where he was tortured.
Claiming to have little recollection of the facts, Rifat Abbas admitted during his interrogation on Thursday to have “stabbed” the victims, “to shut her up”.
“I was afraid that the neighbors would hear and that the police would come”, he said. He did not give any additional explanation for his murderous gesture, apologizing several times to the family.
The trial has “freed from a weight” the family, declared moved the father of Audrey Coignard: even if “it may not be enough, we are moving forward”.
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