At the Assises de l'Hérault (illustration) -
N. Bonzom / Maxele Presse
A septuagenarian is tried from this Monday before the Assize Court of Hérault for the assassination of the director of a small supermarket, near Montpellier.
The accused, retired, had worked as a butcher in this store.
The man, despite psychological problems, had been declared fit to stand trial.
On February 2, 2017, the assassination of the director of a small supermarket in Pignan (Hérault) caused a stir in this town of 6,600 inhabitants of the Montpellier metropolis.
A few days after the tragedy, his funeral had gathered several hundred inhabitants, and the businesses of the village had closed their doors, by putting up the poster "village in mourning" on their windows.
The fifty-year-old had been shot dead in the convenience store, before it opened.
This Monday opened before the assizes of the Hérault the trial of the accused, a septuagenarian who had worked as a butcher in this small store a few years earlier.
The trial is held until Wednesday in Montpellier.
Weapons seized in 2016
The motive for the assassination, which remains unclear, should be at the heart of the trial.
The man was unable to provide any clear explanation to investigators throughout the investigation.
The unstable personality of the accused should also be widely mentioned.
The day after the events, Christophe Barret, then public prosecutor, noted that this man "had behaved, in August [2016], which had pointed out, which had led to a gendarmerie procedure" , and "had made it possible to seize the weapons which were in his possession".
The pensioner was then presented to a psychiatrist.
"A judicial catastrophe"
Experts had declared him fit to stand trial, despite psychological difficulties and impaired judgment.
"Until 2016, there were no problems, and then we have a deterioration, with a form of senility," said Martine Figuerroa, her lawyer, to
Midi Libre.
"He doesn't recognize the premeditation, and maybe in his head he doesn't recognize that he wanted to kill him either.
But he has regrets.
"
"The whole question of this trial is: Why when we seize his weapons, he finds himself a few days later again in possession of a weapon, which will allow him to take action ?
", Asks for his part Luc Abratkiewicz, the lawyer for the family of the victim on France 3." It is a legal disaster ", he still believes.
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Languedoc-Roussillon
Montpellier
Justice
Trial
Assassination