It was a story that made a lot of noise at the time. 1is January 2015, a woman arrives at the Thionville police station and declares to have received a message from her companion telling him that he is being held prisoner by two men whose names he gives. She mentions another SMS, this time received by the victim’s brother, evoking a ransom of 60,000 euros against his release.
The victim was found the next day in Bertrange after having escaped and sought refuge with neighbors. The man with the swollen face and limbs, still wearing plastic necklaces tightened to the wrists and ankles, declares that he went to the accused on December 31 at his request and then was knocked out “with a butt”, having lost consciousness and then being transported, a bag on the head, in the trunk of a car to a cabin in Bertrange. There, he says he was hit by several men “in turn”.
These men, he knows them well, all of them are involved, directly or indirectly, in drug trafficking. In total, seven people are identified by the victim as having participated in the operation. He says he convinced one of his captors to let him escape.
On the spot, the police will find a stuck car, balaclavas and “recent” cigarette butts. The analyzes will reveal the presence of traces of DNA belonging to the accused.
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“Not one but two or even three versions”
On June 16, 2016, the defendant was found guilty of kidnapping, forcible confinement and group violence. The decision having been rendered in his absence, he was able to oppose the judgment. He has therefore just been retried by the Thionville court.
“I have nothing to do with this story. On December 31, 2014, I was in Marseille, ”launches the respondent, more than six years after the events. “However, the car found on the spot was indeed yours and your DNA was found in the shed where the victim stayed”, asserts Marie-Cécile Dupuis, president of the court. “The car, it no longer belonged to me, I had sold it. And for DNA, that’s normal, it’s a place I’ve been to frequently since I was 17 ”. The defendant, depicted as a “ghost” by the public prosecutor, having no address, no bank account, no driving license, no recognized job, was thus able to disappear from radar screens despite the arrest warrant. launched against him in 2015.
The representative of the prosecution requested a (new) four-year prison sentence against her. For Maître Roth, defense lawyer: “What bothers me is that there is not one but two or even three versions in this case, which shows that the investigation has not been carried out. »And to press:« No serious element allows to establish the participation of my client ».
The defendant, sentenced in the first trial to four years’ imprisonment, was released “for the benefit of the doubt”.
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