They spent more than three years in prison: two young Albanians accused of raping two teenage girls acquitted in Montpellier

Me Jean-Baptiste Mousset, l’un des avocats de la défense. MIDI LIBRE – François Barrère

Après trois jours d’audience à huis clos, la cour criminelle de l’Hérault a décidé le 6 juillet d’innocenter les deux accusés, qui ont été remis en liberté le soir même en liberté.

"He collapsed when the decision was delivered, he who had been shouting his innocence for years". Friday July 6, the Hérault criminal court, after three days of hearing behind closed doors, pronounced a rather rare decision: a double acquittal, for two accused who appeared detained after having spent "three years, four months and 14 days in pre-trial detention", as detailed by Me Jean-Baptiste Mousset.

In a Formula 1 hotel in Saint-Aunès

The latter defended with Me Mikaël D’Alimonte a 27-year-old Albanian carpenter, prosecuted, like his cousin, aged 22 and assisted by Me David Mendel and Me Sandrine Bonnici, for having abused in a Formula 1 hotel in Saint- Aunès of two teenage girls aged 16 and 17, housed in a home for unaccompanied minors in Clapiers, in February 2021.

The young girls had claimed to have been victims of this sexual violence, and to also be threatened and extorted by these two men, one of whom was under the influence of an OQTF at the time facts denounced.

"The public prosecutor had requested moderate sentences", notes Me Mousset. "My client who has lived with a strong feeling of injustice for recent years can believe in justice again."

"The fragility of the civil parties, their status as isolated minors, their life history and the failure of social services were obstacles to their credibility" deplores for her part Me Chantal Corbier, civil party. The general prosecutor's office has ten days to appeal.

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