• Mokrane Sai, 87, operated a building for 46 years and collected 189,000 euros in rent without justifying any invoice proving maintenance.

  • The court released him, considering that "there is no concrete evidence in the proceedings" capable of demonstrating this vulnerability.

The owner of a very degraded furnished hotel in Marseille, closed for unsanitary conditions by the City, was released on Monday, the criminal court judging that the vulnerability of the old immigrant workers who were housed there was "not sufficiently demonstrated".

An astonishing judgment to say the least in a case of poor housing.

On October 4, the prosecutor requested a thirty-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 75,000 euros against Mokrane Sai, 87 years old, operator for 46 years of the furnished apartment on rue Delui, in the Panier district.

He was tried for the offense of subjecting vulnerable people to housing conditions incompatible with human dignity.

Only one shower in the building… installed 46 years later 

The seven Tunisian “chibanis” who had joined as a civil party were dismissed in their claims for damages.

Some had lived for 35 years in one of the building's 28 rooms.

Unheated rooms, piping and taps never redone since the opening in 1972, installation in 2018 only of a single collective shower - payable 5 euros per use… “Undoubtedly, holds the court, the building was in a state of advanced dilapidation from 2011. "In its motivation read at the hearing by the president Laure Humeau, the court indicates that" the housing conditions of the plaintiffs are qualified as incompatible with human dignity ".

189,000 euros in rent

In four years, Mokrane Sai had cashed in his accounts for 189,000 euros in rent without justifying any invoice proving maintenance of the building.

While imagining the “economic fragility” of tenants, the health problems mentioned by some, the impossibility for single men with their families abroad to claim social housing, the court nevertheless considered that “it 'there is no concrete element in procedure' capable of demonstrating this vulnerability.

The prosecution, whose fight against substandard housing is one of the priorities, appealed against this first release.

Justice

Marseille: The owner of a furnished hotel judged for "unworthy accommodation"

Justice

Marseille: Six months suspended for a sleep merchant

  • Justice

  • Marseilles

  • Bad housing