Marseille: a figure of narcobanditism sentenced to 30 years for assassination

Europe 1 with AFP 6:40 p.m., February 4, 2023

Christopher Aouni, 37, a supposed figure in Marseille narcobanditism, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Saturday, with a 20-year security period, for the assassination of a man who opposed the establishment of a point of deal in his Marseille city.

The Assize Court of Aix en Provence followed the requisitions of the Advocate General, who had asked to retain the premeditation, while the defense denounced an "empty file".

Saci Labidi, 30, was killed by two Kalashnikov shots at point-blank range on March 24, 2018, while he was playing cards in the local association of the Consolat city, in the working-class neighborhoods in the north of Marseille, plagued by the drug trafficking.

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An encrypted phone as proof

According to the Advocate General, the victim, a coachbuilder very involved in the social life of the district, would have opposed the establishment of a second point of sale of narcotics in Consolat.

And he would have even hunted drug dealers.

The accused denied being the author of this execution, but the investigation established that an encrypted telephone had been used by the perpetrators, a telephone whose route was then geolocated to the place of the fire of the commando vehicle. , in Vitrolles, a few minutes after the fact.

However, for the prosecution, Christopher Aouni was indeed the holder of this telephone, which had triggered in the hours preceding the murder the same relay cells as his vehicle equipped with a telematics box.

"We are following him closely," insisted the Advocate General.

During the debates, Christopher Aouni insisted that this telephone was in the possession of one of his friends, Hichem Menadjlia, who would have received it himself from the hands of a trafficker nicknamed "Zébu".

In a step "never seen" according to the police, the first had presented himself in the days following the arrest of Christopher Aouni, to claim ownership of the PGP.

Since then, Hichem and "Zébu" have also been killed, in what appears to be an internal war within the so-called "Marignane" gang, one of the main teams of local narcobanditry, according to the judicial police.

Despite multiple testimonies and his involvement in other cases with members of this clan, Christopher Aouni denies having been part of it.

His lawyers had pleaded acquittal, denouncing "an empty file" and challenging the telephone work.

According to them, the investigators would have too hastily dismissed the track of the band of Marignane, at war against the accused.