They had argued over a debt of 500 euros, a craftsman was tried before the Nîmes assizes for the murder of a nightclub owner. Lionel Arnaud was sentenced to 15 years of criminal imprisonment on Thursday September 28, 2023.
Ironworker Lionel Arnaud was sentenced to 15 years of criminal imprisonment by the Nîmes Assize Court this Thursday evening. The attorney general had requested 20 years against the murderer of Hafid Kebdani. The verdict fell this Thursday evening.
During three days of trial, the debates revolved around an essential question: who owned the gun that killed people? To Lionel Arnaud, the accused? Or to Hafid Kebdani, the victim? It is with this weapon that the accused kills the future nightclub owner for whom he worked as an ironworker.
Lionel Arnaud, a 51-year-old craftsman, was indicted for having shot and killed Hafid Kebdani, after an altercation that occurred in a bar four years ago, in the Nîmes district of Saint-Césaire.
On the evening of the tragedy, June 26, 2019, around 9:30 p.m., the accused and his victim allegedly argued over a debt of 500 euros. A shot went off, fatally hitting Hafid Kebdani. Very seriously injured, the nightclub manager was taken care of by the firefighters who evacuated him to the Nîmes University Hospital. In vain, he died before reaching the hospital.
The accused’s defense would like to attribute ownership of the weapon to the deceased. This would make it possible to avoid being charged with “violence with intent to cause death”. But this is an unthinkable scenario for the civil party.
“The gun belongs to the murderer. He came with it, picked it up in his car and used it on at least two occasions. And this, witnesses affirm, assures Maître Hugo Ferri, lawyer for the victim’s family. “The defense’s thesis is to reverse the roles. But there is one element that allows us to say that it is the murderer’s weapon, there is only Lionel Arnaud’s DNA on the weapon, and only his.”
A version accepted by the Court which sentenced Lionel Arnaud to 15 years of criminal imprisonment.
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