One of the perpetrators of the SFR store robbery sentenced to five years in prison

La boutique SFR du Quai du mas d'Hours déjà braquée deux fois. Midi Libre – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Le prévenu de 19 ans, originaire de Lyon, était inconnu des services de la justice.

On September 10, the SFR store on Quai du Mas d'Hours was held up by three individuals, their faces covered, armed with a knife and an iron bar.

A few hours after the incident, the three suspects were arrested by the police in the Saint-Étienne region. The loot is found: 31 phones worth nearly 17,000 euros.

While the two 15-year-old minors must be summoned to the juvenile court in Lyon, the third accused, Sofiane, is being tried this Monday at the Alès judicial court.

“If you move, I'll plant you”

In the defendants' box, the 19-year-old, with a vocational baccalaureate in his pocket, a temporary worker for a year, with a clean criminal record, gives barely audible answers. The presiding judge has to ask him several times to articulate and speak louder.

Sofiane listens without blinking or showing any particular emotion to the edifying testimony of one of the saleswomen, present during the attack: “I'm from the North. I arrived in Alès in July and I've been working at SFR ever since. During the recruitment process, we talked about this kind of situation, but when it happens… I went back to work the next day, otherwise I would think about it and think about it again. It's not easy though. When I hear the store door open, I have a fear."

30 years in prison for a 1000 € contract

The victim addresses the defendant directly: “It seems so easy to hold up. Why do it for 1,000 euros ? (the reward promised for this contract, Editor's note) We have to work to earn that. My colleague had a knife in her chest placed by a kid who could have been her son. They are 15 years old! I have a brother who is 13. You have no idea what that feels like… All that for a fucking phone. The attack lasted three minutes, it doesn't seem like much, but when you see it……"

"These facts are very serious, attacks prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini in his requisitions. This is an armed robbery, by an organized gang. The prosecutor's decision was to order an immediate appearance trial. And to the defendant: One of the attackers threatened a saleswoman with a knife, telling her “Don't move or I'll leave you”. Normally, this is the Assize Court where you face 30 years of criminal imprisonment. All this to win 1,000 euros. We are dealing with three individuals, who do not know each other, who came specially from Lyon to hold up a store. It is a well-organized network with sponsors and executors: even if they do not know each other, they are asked to work as a team, they are given two previously stolen cars, each has a role to play, they are given clothes to change into after the attack, the reconnaissance has been carried out, the routes are defined."

Unsurprisingly, a substantial sentence is requested: “five years in prison, one or two of which are suspended, with continued detention.”

A robber unknown to the courts

The defendant's lawyer tries to minimize her client's responsibilities: “The court will have to take into account the fact that he has a clean record. He is a puppet, a simple operative in a network. He had no weapon, he did not threaten anyone. As for the reconnaissance, he was not the one who carried them out. His phone was not used by investigators. He must be released for receiving stolen cars. He had no idea of ​​the fraudulent origin of the vehicles. A mixed sentence with the firm part under electronic bracelet could be possible."

In accordance with the prosecutor's requisitions, Sofiane was sentenced to five years in prison, two of which were suspended with continued detention.

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