Stéphane Burgatt / Credits: Benoit PEYRUCQ / AFP 06:57, March 2, 2024

He knew that Éric Masson was a police officer at the time he shot him.

In any case, that's what the jurors remembered.

Ilias Akoudad, the man who killed the brigadier in 2021 at a deal point in the center of Avignon, was sentenced on Friday to 30 years of criminal imprisonment.

A sentence with a 20-year security period pronounced in front of a room full of police officers. 

Ilias Akoudad, the murderer of brigadier Éric Masson in Avignon in May 2021, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Friday with a security period of 20 years.

The Vaucluse Assize Court which delivered this verdict did indeed take into account the aggravating circumstance of murder of a person holding public authority.

After six hours of deliberation, the verdict was greeted with great silence in this room filled with plainclothes and uniformed police officers.

At the exit, Eric Masson's father, very dignified, was the first to speak. 

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“Only losers”

"The sentence seems fair to us. Regardless, today, I remain a father who lost his son and whatever the sentence, he will never come back. That's how it is," explains the father of the victim.

“We remain with our sadness. Indeed, there are no winners, there are only losers.”

Ilias Akoudad, dressed in black, who had apologized to the family this morning, remained frozen in the box.

He exchanged a few words with her advice, then lowered his head.

He avoids life imprisonment.

Frank Berton, his lawyer, for his part spoke of a fair sentence.

A verdict of appeasement?

"It is a courageous verdict. It is a verdict above all which is not a verdict of elimination since life imprisonment was not pronounced. Once again, it is important to remember that this verdict can also be a verdict of appeasement."

Indeed, everyone here feared a verdict that could open the way, for one side or the other, to an appeal.

This verdict seems designed in any case to avoid it.