Samuel, a Victim of Homophobic Attack: Calls for Exemplary Sanctions Against Attacker

Samuel, 31, looks back on the violent homophobic attack he suffered. “I feel in danger, not safe”, he warns at the microphone of BFMTV. His lawyer asks that exemplary sanctions be taken against his attacker.

Insults, mockery, sideways looks… For years, Samuel, 31, has been the victim of recurring homophobic insults. But at the end of March, at the exit of a nightclub, a man tried to crush him with his car, for no other reason than that of being homosexual. An attempted homicide, filmed by a witness, that this resident of Bouches-du-Rhône wants to denounce today.

“There, they want to kill me (…) I don’t deserve this. Kill me for what I am, no. It’s the last straw! I want to denounce, stop!” he said at the microphone of BFMTV.

On the night of Saturday March 25 to Sunday March 26, Samuel goes out with friends to a nightclub in Plan de Campagne, a commercial area between Marseille and Aix. After a drunken evening, Samuel said he was stopped at the exit of the establishment by an individual, who called him “dirty gay”.

“He insults me with ‘dirty gay’, ‘dirty bi’ repeatedly”, says the young thirty-year-old at the microphone of BFMTV. “Since I’m used to taking these insults, I say nothing. But the third time, I say stop.”

Head trauma and 13 days of ITT

An altercation ensues and the bouncers separate the two men, recalls Samuel. But a few minutes later, his attacker and another individual return.

“He takes his car and drives into me with the clear intention of killing me.”

Samuel is violently hit by the vehicle, thrown into the air and falls to the ground, unconscious. He will be transported to the Nord hospital in Marseille, where he will be diagnosed with a head trauma and where he will be given 13 days of ITT.

More than a month after his attack, Samuel remains very shocked. “I’m in depression. I’m on antidepressants, I’m surviving what I’ve been through. I’m trying to put words to what happened. But morally, it’s not going at all,” says- he.

“They killed me morally”

Since then, the driver has been remanded in custody and the passenger in the car under judicial supervision. If Samuel “is better” physically, the young thirty-year-old “feels injustice.” “Morally, it’s wrong. (…) I feel hatred. Injustice, above all. Why did they want to kill me?” Samuel asks.

“It disturbs me, I no longer recognize myself. Normally, I am happy. There, they killed me morally.”

He says today “no longer going out alone” outside, the fear of being attacked again being too great. “I feel in danger, not safe,” he warns.

“He let the insults pass each time. But this is one time too many. We want the homophobic nature of the attack to be corroborated by the investigation”, explains Samuel’s lawyer, Maître Hervé Seroussi , who hopes that justice “will do its job in good conditions.”

Two complaints were filed by Samuel and his mother. “We want the harshest sanctions to be applied (…) We want these people to be condemned firmly”, concludes the lawyer. “There is no doubt about the will of the attackers: Samuel escaped death.”