“I'm going to slit your throats one by one”: angry at not being able to smoke, he attacks the police in the court's jails

Le jeune prévenu attendait d'être jugé quand il s'en est pris aux gendarmes. Midi Libre – GIACOMO ITALIANO

Death threats against the gendarmes, one of them thrown to the ground: last December, a defendant who was waiting to appear in court, attacked the police forces ;order in the jails of the judicial court.  

It's a story of a cigarette that would have ignited the powder. Last December, a defendant unhappy at not being able to go smoke, violently attacked the police in the jails of the judicial court, where he was waiting to # 39;be judged. Explicit death threats:"I'm going to slit your throats one by one with a cutter." And physical attacks: spitting, and a blow to the face of a gendarme who will benefit from 3 days of ITT. 

He refuses to attend his trial

Friday February 23, at the criminal court hearing, the 20-year-old young man had to answer for violence against a person holding public authority, contempt and rebellion. But until the last moment, he refused to attend his trial. "It was better that he did not go up to the hearing", his lawyer declared during his pleading, considering the impulsive temperament of his client. It was therefore in his absence that the debates took place.

President Fabrice Parisi recalls the facts. This December 13, the defendant must appear with other defendants, for violence in a meeting committed in a remand center, where he is in pre-trial detention as part of a criminal committal warrant. In a collective jail at the Montpellier court, he makes a disturbance. "He behaved like the boss", reports a reservist gendarme who is among the victims, and has become a civil party.

"He doesn't have his cigarette, it's making him out of control"

We then decide to transfer the young man to an individual cell. This is when he becomes violent. "It started again, as if it were plugged into electricity", declares the reservist gendarme in the procedure. His colleague, also a reservist, was thrown to the ground and hit the tiles with his head. He is injured in one ear and one eye. "The defendant does not have his cigarette and this puts him in an uncontrollable state", observes his lawyer, Me Laure Valarié. "He calmed down after a good dozen spits", adds one of the gendarmes present at the hearing. 

The video protection camera obstructed by a gendarme

During his hearing, in the proceedings, the young man claims to have been "strangled and hit". He acknowledges the insults but disputes the spitting and threats. On the video surveillance images, a passage catches the president's attention: the one where a gendarme comes to obstruct the camera with his hand. For Mr. Parisi, "this gesture casts doubt. Is this' was to hide violence on the part of the police ?" "This gesture leaves us with questions . We didn't need that, regrets the defendant's lawyer.

"Victim of himself"

For prosecutor Marco Scuccimarra, we are facing "a very rare incident". The representative of the public prosecutor pays tribute "to the police officers who work permanently in the court's jails and to those who come there as reinforcements". He describes a defendant "with a very impulsive personality, who has difficulty managing frustration, provocative and disruptive". He requires one year in prison with warrant of committal.   

For the defense lawyer, her client is "victim of himself", "he cannot control himself but does not require psychiatric care either." The court finally reclassified the facts of violence in rebellion and sentenced the young man to 8 months in prison with a committal warrant. Concerning the damage suffered by the gendarmes, the case was referred to civil interests.