The Montpellier courthouse, which houses the Assises de l'Hérault.

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N. Bonzom / Maxele Presse

It took more than ten hours of deliberation to reach the verdict in the case of a 17-year-old boy beaten to death five years ago.

A dealer and three of his henchmen were sentenced to terms of 25 to 30 years of criminal imprisonment Tuesday by the Assize Court of Hérault.

Hicham El Moutaouakil, 37, was sentenced to 30 years of criminal imprisonment, Anouar Taïbi, 28, the sponsor dealer of the punitive expedition, to 28 years of imprisonment, and Djamel Fellah, a henchman aged 37 years old, also at 28 years old.

"There is no justice, we are going to appeal," shouted the latter, who has continued to cause hearing incidents during the seven days of the trial.

At the end of the verdict, the family of the victim had to be evacuated by the police outside the court, under the cries and threats of the family of the dealer.

A night of ordeal

Adame Reghi, a small 25-year-old dealer with a clean record, who explained that he wanted to "save his skin" by striking ultra-violent blows on the victim when he was himself suspected of theft of liquid at the home of the dealer, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The four men are also prohibited from holding a weapon subject to authorization for five years.

The accused were prosecuted for “forcible confinement followed by death” and “violence resulting in an ITT” of six weeks, “with the use or threat of a weapon, in a meeting, with premeditation”.

On March 30, 2016, in a quiet area of ​​Montpellier, the martyred body of Sofiane Perrin, a high school student, was discovered bleeding: the emergency services could never revive the young boy.

At his side, his friend Edouard, 21, was found seriously injured.

In front of the Assize Court, he courageously described a night of ordeal suffered on the orders of Anouar Taïbi, a trafficker living in a village in Hérault.

An "outburst of violence"

Monday, the attorney general had requested sentences ranging from 22 years imprisonment to life imprisonment against the four men, guilty according to him of the "outburst of violence" which led to death after the theft of 15,000 euros at the home of the dealer.

After this theft, which has never been elucidated, the dealer instructed three henchmen to "terrorize" and "torture" three of his young clients.

The first was injured and traumatized, the second, Edouard, seriously injured.

Sofiane, who was only a very occasional small user of cannabis, succumbs to his tormentors after all night begging to leave him alive and proclaiming his innocence.

A brother of the dealer was also sentenced to two years' imprisonment for failing to assist a person in danger: when he saw him very badly in the early hours of the morning, Sofiane could still have been saved by medical treatment according to the report. forensic scientist.

But his body will be "thrown" from a car in the morning, 250 meters from a clinic, when it was already too late.

Justice

In Montpellier, five accused at the assizes for the kidnapping and killing of a teenager

Miscellaneous

The gendarmes put an end to the ordeal of a kidnapped woman and victim of sexual abuse

  • Dealer

  • Languedoc-Roussillon

  • Montpellier

  • Assize court

  • Torture

  • Justice