Anxious, François (his first name has been changed) manipulates his left wrist with his right hand, then pulls his gray t-shirt up above his nose, as if to dry the tears that are about to appear. At his side in the defendants’ box, Yaniss (her first name has also been changed) is not doing well either. Dressed in a red sweatshirt, this 19-year-old has the acne and hair of a young high school student. It was 10 p.m. this Friday when he realized, groggy, that he was about to spend his first night in prison.
These two first-time offenders were tried by the Bobigny court (Seine-Saint-Denis) for their participation in the fire at the Villepinte municipal police station on the night of June 29 to 30, during a night of urban violence following the death of Nahel in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine). The damage is estimated at 1,200,000 euros. On October 4, more than three months after the events, six young men were arrested and placed in police custody following a search by the local police station.
The four minors will be tried by the children’s court next January. The trial of François and Yaniss, born in 2001 and 2003 respectively, was postponed until November 13. The first was placed under judicial supervision and the second in pre-trial detention after a day of immediate appearance hearings marked by numerous dismissals.
“Kids who were angry”
The eldest is accused of having thrown stones and fired fireworks towards the station and, above all, of having stolen a municipal police shield found at his home during a search. “He threw three stones and two empty bottles in an empty courtyard and he took the shield from the hands of a rioter,” argued his lawyer. He did not set foot in the police station, he did not set fire to the barricades, he did not damage any red lights. »
The charges against the youngest defendant are heavier, since he is also being prosecuted for damage to vehicles and violence against police officers. Facts that his lawyer tried to justify by “a context of bullshit” and “a group, pack effect”. “These are kids who were angry”, whose profile – “young and integrated” – corresponds to that of a good number of rioters tried since July by the Bobigny court, she observes.
A few weeks earlier, a first defendant was sentenced to six months in prison and then imprisoned for the attack on the Villepinte police station. It was Yaniss’s lawyer who defended him. “A disabled worker, under supervision and a first-time offender,” she describes at the hearing. This file traumatized me. »
In order not to relive such a situation, she urged the court not to be influenced by “the political context” and by the press release from the Bobigny public prosecutor on this case posted on Twitter a few hours before the trial. In vain: his client was the subject of a committal warrant.
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