“On the ground of revenge, I am trapped”: Richard Perez and his complex personality before the Gard Assize Court

Richard Perez, just before the opening of his trial at the Gard Assize Court. FREE NOON – FRANCOIS BARRERE

The sixty-year-old from Nîmes, who managed numerous companies and spent many years in detention, is accused with four of his relatives of having wanted to eliminate one of his long-time enemies, on February 23, 2013 in Nimes. A crime that everyone denies, but which according to the prosecution would have been a response to the assassination of his father, Roger Perez, in 2002 in La Grande-Motte, which was never elucidated.

He gets angry with the president of the Gard assizes, who summarizes his judicial balance, where the execution of sentences to be served took precedence over two years of pre-trial detention. &amp ;quot;So if I am convicted, I start from scratch ? Once again, I have no right to be judged like the others !" Richard Perez thunders, nervous in his dark suit. A little later, he discreetly wipes away tears when he recalls his childhood in Nîmes and the heartbreak that was his parents' divorce. "We tell you feels very moved, you have psychological follow-up ?" inquires the magistrate.

The facets of a complex personality

Returned for the first time in his life to the assizes, accused of having participated with four co-defendants in an assassination attempt in Nîmes, on February 23, 2013, Richard Perez, 60 years old, leaves ;nbsp;this Monday, June 10, glimpse some facets of his complex personality. On the one hand, the entrepreneur, put to work at the age of 14 by his father in the public works company where he was supposed to make "more and better than the others." In 1988, after the terrible floods in Nîmes, "his father's company cleaned the city for several weeks" and Mayor Jean Bousquet notices it.

Also read: REPLAY. Assassination attempt in Nîmes: "I never gave the slightest order to go and kill Houlonne" assures Richard Perez

He takes over the trash markets of Nîmes and Marseille

"In 1989 during a garbage collectors' strike, he did not fear being seen as a strikebreaker, he described a difficult period, with fights." Richard Perez creates his garbage collection company, wins the markets of Nîmes and Marseille, "going from zero to 450 employees and 250 trucks." The magistrate: "It describes a period of obtaining guaranteed contracts to the financing of political parties, to the supply of henchmen and poster pasters." And then come the troubles, prison for corruption, in Vendargues, for abuse of social assets in Nîmes, and this sale of his company to the Onyx group, which turns into war.

A hundred trucks burned

"I got nine years in prison for burning a few trucks" s’ he says indignantly. The President : "A hundred trucks, you mean."

His companion says "whole, devoid of filters, with his guts constantly exposed." For one of his daughters, he is "anxious, hard-working, sensitive, empathetic and often betrayed, including at within his family." His brother Thierry is at odds with him"since he bet a million francs (150 000 €) on roulette. He is a fighter, who succeeded through nerve but alienated many people. At one point, the power had completely gone to his head. His father always protected him, and he died for protecting him."

The assassination of his father in La Grande-Motte

Roger Perez was riddled with bullets in La Grande-Motte in 2002, when Richard had just been incarcerated. Is this the motive for this abortive settling of scores, targeting Raymond Houlonne, the long-time enemy?

"The only people who really betrayed me was my brother in his hearing. I can't hide my pain for my father, because I think about him every day. But by talking about it, I am brought into the realm of revenge, and I am trapped. But I never gave the slightest order or paid to go kill Raymond Houlonne." A target who plays the girl of the air: will Raymond Houlonne come to testify before the verdict, scheduled for Friday?

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