Shaïna's ex-boyfriend sentenced to 18 years in prison for his murder

Europe 1 with AFP 06:34, June 10, 2023

The Assize Court of Minors of the Oise sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment the ex-boyfriend of Shaïna, for the murder of this teenager, stabbed and burned alive at 15 years old in 2019 in Creil, probably pregnant with him. "Why? Why?", reacted the accused, pale complexion, burgeoning beard and dark eyes, to the announcement of the verdict, on the night of Friday to Saturday, after 4 hours of deliberation. Then, shouting at the jurors: "You are wrong! I am innocent!"

"18 years! That's justice in France!" said Shaïna's brother, Yasin, in tears. After tense exchanges with the accused, he became unwell, resulting in a suspension of the hearing. He was taken to hospital. Shaïna's father told AFP he was "disappointed with justice". "Justice does not care about violence against women," said Negar Haeri, the family's lawyer. Between pre-trial detention and remission of sentence, the accused "comes out in eight years", she said.

This sentence, pronounced in a heavy atmosphere, is lower than the requisitions of the attorney general, Loïc Abrial, who had requested 30 years of criminal imprisonment for a crime according to him "premeditated at each stage". Loïc Abrial had requested the lifting of the excuse of minority of the accused, aged 17 at the time of the facts, allowing to increase the maximum sentence from 20 to 30 years. But this was not upheld by the court.

"Funny and smiling"

Through the voices of Elise Arfi and Adel Fares, the defense had pleaded acquittal. Faced with this verdict, the accused "exploded. He was very shocked. What we can understand for a young man of 20 years," commented Mr. Arfi, judging that it was "too early" to decide on a possible appeal. Throughout the closed trial, which opened Monday, the young man, a high school student with no criminal record at the time of the facts, has claimed his innocence.

According to the civil parties, the expert psychiatrist pointed Thursday to the lack of empathy and narcissism of the young man, a portrait rejected by the defense. Shaïna, who died at the age of 15, had been the victim of sexual assault two years earlier in her city, the images of which had been posted online, exposing her according to Negar Haeri, her family's lawyer, to be treated "as a thing".

Four other young men were sentenced on 1 June on appeal to suspended prison sentences ranging from six months to two years. According to the investigation, Shaïna, described by her mother as "funny and smiling", was probably starting a pregnancy, which she attributed to the accused. The latter may have been moved, according to the civil parties, by the fear of losing the love of his parents if he broke with their demands for perfection, against a background of religious prohibition around sexuality.

"He was ready to destroy everything to save his image," ruled the attorney general, Me Adel Fares sweeping away on the contrary any link between his faith and the case.

Turnovers

Shaïna's parents revolted in court against the reputation inflicted on their daughter in the neighborhood. In two years, Shaïna "has experienced all the gender-based violence," said Friday Zoe Royaux, spokesperson for the Women's Foundation, civil party. In France, according to official figures, a woman dies every three days from the violence of her spouse or ex-spouse. The hearings were marked by the reversal or absence of some prosecution witnesses.

A friend of the accused said he could not remember seeing blood on his clothes the day after the incident. Two ex-co-detainees, according to whom the young man would have boasted of having killed so as not to assume the paternity of a "bastard", did not appear. Not enough to weaken the file, for Mr. Haeri. The mobile phone of the accused and that of Shaïna "bounded" shortly before the facts near the shed of the crime, and burns on the legs of the young man were confirmed by a medical expert.