Europe 1 with AFP 3:47 p.m., June 10, 2022

The perpetrators of the theft of the Bataclan door on which was a Banksy painting were sentenced in Paris on Friday to sentences ranging from 18 months to four years in prison.

The facts, which had occurred on the night of January 25 to 26, 2019, had aroused a wave of emotion.

The public prosecutor requested Friday from 18 months to four years in prison against eight defendants tried in Paris for the theft or concealment of a door of the Bataclan, decorated with a painting by Banksy considered as a tribute to the victims of November 13.

The prosecutor asked the court in particular to impose four and three years' imprisonment on the three men who admitted the theft on the night of January 25 to 26, 2019, as well as six years, three of which are closed with a fine of 150,000 euros. a fourth who, according to her, "sponsored" the mischief.

For these four defendants, she requested a warrant of committal or immediate imprisonment.

“The theft of this door aroused very strong emotion and a major disturbance to public order,” recalled the prosecutor.

"We all agree that it was not a question of profaning", she however estimated, but "of making a profit by being aware of the inestimable value of this door".

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A work attributed to Banksy behind the Bataclan

The door had been transported to Italy

The magistrate spoke of a "scavenger behavior, of people who come to steal valuables without having any kind of respect for what they may represent".

"It's not a flight of nickel-plated feet, but a structured organization", also hammered Valérie Cadignan.

She recalled the route of the door, stolen shortly after 4:00 a.m. on January 26, 2019, in eight minutes, using a crowbar and grinders connected to a generator, installed in a van with concealed plates. .

Assigning a role to each defendant, she recalled that after a change of vehicle, one of the "thieves" and "the evacuator" had transported the door the same day in the Var, to a man she referred to as a "sponsor".

Two days later, on January 28, the door was driven by two "carriers" in a third truck to Italy, where she was dropped off at a "nanny", the Italian owner of a hotel in Tortoreto, said continued the representative of the prosecution.

The latter finally had the door "moved" in the attic of a farm in Sant-Omero, about fifteen kilometers away.

This is where she was discovered by the police on June 10, 2020. The defense arguments must follow one another in the afternoon.

The court announced that it would reserve its decision until June 23.