• The trial of Youcef Tebbal and Mohamed Yelloule, tried for the death of Axelle Dorier, takes place from Tuesday to Friday at the Rhône Assize Court in Lyon.

  • On July 19, 2020, the two accused struck the young woman with a vehicle that Youcef Tebbal was driving, before dragging her body for 800 m.

    They surrendered to the police two hours later.

  • In their statements, they both claim that they did not see Axelle when they hit her.

On July 19, 2020, when he went to Fourvière with his cousin to meet girls contacted via Snapchat, Youcef Tebbal hit Axelle Dorier and dragged the body, hanging under the car, for more than 800 m.

"I did not see it, I never thought there was a body under the vehicle", swore on Tuesday, before the Rhône Assize Court, this 24-year-old young man, tried for "violence with use or threat of a weapon resulting in death without intention to give it”.

He faces up to twenty years in prison.

His father, who only spoke in court to describe his son, let his heart out to the media.

He then returned to what Youcef Tebbal had told him about the facts: "He told me that he had stopped after 800 m to remove the bumper and that is when he had discovered that there was a body”.

"He then remained frozen for a few seconds before leaving to save his skin," said the 60-year-old man.

He assures that his son “would not hurt anyone”, blaming the fact “to be present in the wrong place at the wrong time”.

For this father of five children, his son Youcef had to choose between "running away" or "dying" in the face of "violent people" who attacked his car.

"Speak the truth"

During the personality interrogation, in the first moments of this first day of hearing, the accused turned to the victim's mother, father and two brothers.

"I want to apologize and offer my condolences," he said to this family, in tears, gathered on the first bench of the room.

"I imagine it's my own sister, I'm really sorry," he repeated several times.

For him, "it's a nightmare", he assures him "never [he has] wanted to take his life".

At the start of the session, the court recalled that the man, at the time a delivery driver, did not "dispute the reality of the facts but the voluntary nature".

During his four days of trial, he must "tell his truth in a hostile climate, confronted with the gaze of the family", affirmed his lawyer David Metaxas who said again with certainty that his client "had not seen" Axelle when he hit her.

But after ?

Because if he says he does not understand that the body of the young woman has remained stuck under the car he was driving, he still stops on his way to escape when he understands that his car has a driving problem.

In particular, 807 m from the scene, at the entrance to the Gallo-Roman theater, where there is a video surveillance camera.

For these parking lots, he claims to have remained in the vehicle, just like his passenger Mohamed Yelloule.

The accused said that he only saw the body lying on the ground "in his rear view mirror" starting from rue l'Antiquaille and realized at that moment "that he had run over and dragged someone".

Stains of Axelle's blood on his shirt

In the investigation file, the records of the video recordings only provided “partial” elements on the facts.

"The camera turns on itself, very quickly," shared the president of the assize court.

“At 3:39, we notice the parking lot in front of the entrance, then the angle of view changes.

At 3:40 a.m., the vehicle backed up, stopped to let a car pass and then drove off.

Twice, at the level of the manoeuvre, the front right of the vehicle rose.

At 3:41 a.m., the Golf left the scene and we can guess a body on the road, where the front was rising.

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The police called for the story of the dog hit, from which "everything started" according to the witnesses, assured as for them, to have seen the two young men outside the vehicle when they passed by their level, at the same moment.

They did not stop to check them, being expected further away, but slowed down for several seconds.

"They didn't seem panicked," assured Jérémy Villeneuve, peacekeeper, who intervened that evening.

This undermines the version that Youcef Tebbal would have delivered to his father, who related that he had been "panicked by a crowd of twenty people ready to kill him".

Commander Isabelle Huguet, in charge of the flagrance investigation, also clarified during her hearing, that at "no time was the Golf caught up", then parked 800 m further.

Another disturbing fact, despite the assertions of the defendants, the investigators highlighted the presence of Axelle's blood on Youcef Tebbal's shirt.

“He must have necessarily approached his body under the car, no doubt to detach it”, observes the prosecution in the order for reference.

The forensic pathologists and the accident expert heard on Wednesday may help to shed light on these points during the trial.

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  • Justice

  • Lyons

  • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

  • Court case

  • assize court