Mohamed Kamel has been on trial by the Hérault assizes for attempted murder since Monday 5 December.
The assault had caused quite a stir. A savage and gratuitous act a priori, committed in broad daylight in the alleys of old Montpellier. The personality of the victim, miraculously slain by a cutter, Alain Françon, a recognized director, had also amplified this story. This Monday, December 5, the trial of 33-year-old Mohamed Kamel, tried for this attempted murder that has not yet revealed the whole truth about him, opens at the Hérault assizes.
What will be the position of the defendant who has changed his story several times and whose degree of radicalism raises questions? “He said one thing, he wasn’t going to kill him” indicates his lawyer Me Hayet Djefaflia. “It’s an attempted murder, an attempted murder with a four-inch wound” replies Me Luc Abratkiewicz, plaintiff.
On March 17, 2021, around 11:30 am, witnesses rescued 76-year-old Alain Françon, who had just lost consciousness in the street after being wounded in the neck and having lost a lot of blood.
Vital prognosis committed
His vital prognosis was first confirmed, but prompt surgical treatment saved him. The director with three Molières who was in Montpellier to give lessons at the drama school was able, on his bed of suffering and after coming out of an artificial coma, to deliver his story to the police. He explained that he left his hotel around 11:20 for a walk in the Ecusson.
He heard footsteps behind him, then someone speeding past him, then he felt a sharp pain in his neck and realized he was bleeding heavily. He saw only one figure, in a dark suit with white stripes, before calling for help from passers-by before collapsing.
Cameras help find the accused
Then a thorny investigation began while all avenues of revenge against Alain Françon were quickly ruled out. How to find the suspect? Thanks to the video surveillance of a shop near the place of the attack where an individual in dark overalls is seen running.
Then the tapes of all the municipal cameras in the sector were peeled off, bringing PJ’s police officers to the prefecture. Where the agents of the security post allowed the Algerian to be identified. On March 17 he wanted to go back to the foreigners’ service to update his residence card, but without an appointment. He had been turned away and insulted the police before storming off.
In his indictment, the judge refers to the “disturbing profile of Mohamed Kamel”. Previously convicted of rape, he is also implicated in proceedings for “rape” in a squat, unprovoked assault on a young man or a fork in a pre-trial detention center. On the facts, he recognized the cutting blow, but oscillates between a provocation of the victim, a disdain or another insult, envy “To be a bomber and kill those dirty Frenchmen. A boy who has no identity like me is a terrorist” Before I retract those comments…
“He picked a random person, it’s mind-boggling”
“My client is extremely traumatized by this attack which he does not understand, he was the target of a dangerous psychopath” denounces Me Abratkiewicz. The latter recalls that in 2017 the intelligence services followed him for “radicalization”, “and then he multiplied the convictions and went unnoticed. Today, I don’t know if the motive is terrorist or racist, but he wanted to ‘fuck the French’ and he combined action with words, he took a random person to cut his throat , it’s dizzying”.
For Kamel’s lawyer, the racist and terrorist comments were “just a provocation. His family, hurt, do not share what he said at all. There is a need for care that is difficult to put into place. in which the person does not adhere to it”.
