Nine defendants appear from Monday before the Rhône Assize Court.
They are suspected of having robbed a jewelry store in Luxembourg in March 2018 or of having prepared the heist.
The armed robbery continued with an incredible chase with the police, a shooting and the taking of a family hostage north of Lyon.
On March 20, 2018, they broke into a jewelry store in Luxembourg, pistol and ax in hand.
Dressed in old men's masks to hide their faces, wearing a cap and a black hat, two robbers had terrorized and brutalized the staff before stealing 87 watches worth an estimated two million.
Two others were stationed nearby.
Their escape had ended in the Rhône department after an incredible chase worthy of a film, and a hostage-taking of a family, to whose house they had entered at night.
From this Monday, nine defendants appear before the Rhône Assize Court in Lyon.
The four alleged robbers but also five other people, including two women, suspected of being involved in the heist or its preparation.
The trial is due to last until September 30.
Shooting and hostage taking
The gang was closely watched by the Lyon police who had been informed of a big hit to come.
They try to intercept them the next day, at 2 a.m. at the Limas tollbooth, towards Villefranche-sur-Saône.
It is without counting on the aggressiveness of the robbers, distributed in two vehicles.
A Volvo leading the way and a BMW following.
The first car is stopped but the second rushes over the toll barrier to exit the highway and escape through the small paths.
Things get tough.
Windows and doors open, Kalashnikov in hand, the passenger shoots the vehicle of the agents who escape the bullets with zigzags.
Cornered, the duo heads towards Arnas and randomly climbs the wall of a house, where its occupants, a couple and their four children, are sleeping.
The family is taken hostage while the police surround the house.
Around 3:30 a.m., the agents burst into the house and arrested the thugs, one of whom had taken refuge under a child's bed.
Figure of organized crime
Among the accused are Faress Mahmoudi and Brice Zerrouki, the two occupants of the BMW.
The second escaped from Talaudière prison in April 2018, three weeks after the robbery in Luxembourg.
Arrested half an hour later, he tried to bribe the police to avoid going back behind bars.
A figure of organized crime, he has had around thirty convictions.
In 2012, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for the Caluire Easy Cash robbery.
Two years later, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for an armed robbery.
Miscellaneous facts
Villefranche: A family taken hostage by robbers on the run
Miscellaneous facts
Saint-Etienne: One of the two prison escapees is involved in the robbery in Luxembourg
Justice
assize court
Robbery
Organized crime
Luxemburg
Lyons
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes