Tried for gouging out the eye of a Beaucairois: at the end of a stormy hearing, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison on immediate appearance

La bâtonnière Khadija Aoudia et le vice-procureur Willy Lubin. HOCINE ROUAGDIA

Me Merah ce mardi au tribunal. HOCINE ROUAGDIA

Extremely tense atmosphere this Tuesday during an immediate appearance. The president called the defendant to order several times in an attempt to investigate a case of violence that led a man to lose an eye in a fight in Beaucaire on the evening of July 28-29.

The presiding judge of the criminal court had to call to order several times a defendant tried this Tuesday in immediate appearance for having gouged out the eye of a resident of Beaucaire. The hearing was particularly stormy with a defendant who interrupted the prosecutor and the presiding judge in his investigation of the case. Very angry with the charges in the case and the alleged offences, Gaspard O. completely denied being guilty of anything. The case dates back to the evening of 28 to 29 July last when a fight broke out between the future victim (24 years old) and the defendant (39 years old). Drunk party, transport by car, the forty-year-old vomited in the passenger compartment, which angered the driver. A fight then broke out between the two men.

“Stop talking bullshit”

The youngest received a violent punch in the face, delivered to the head. The forty-year-old was wearing a large ring with a lion's head, which clearly caused the injury to his eye. The case resulted in the suspect being brought before the court and placed in pretrial detention following the criminal court hearing last August. This Tuesday, September 17, Judge Perez tried to lead the proceedings in the face of a defendant who kept interrupting them. “Stop talking nonsense,” he told the court, largely interrupting Deputy Public Prosecutor Willy Lubin.

The president had a hard time controlling the defendant, even just for reading the criminal record. “I paid for that!” The defendant also challenged the victim present in the courtroom with her family. Me Khadija Aoudia, the lawyer for the civil party, the 24-year-old young man, castigated the behavior of the defendant “who betrayed” her client. In the courtroom, he constantly wipes his (lost) eye and readjusts his glasses. His lawyer explains that with the loss of this left eye, he has dizziness, terrible migraines.

“Not a word of apology”, deplores the prosecutor

The prosecutor, who was also interrupted several times in his indictment, nevertheless told the defendant that he regretted that the forty-year-old had not taken the opportunity to let the court “approach the case normally”. The prosecutor explained that he noted that he had not heard a word of apology coming from the prisoners' box. The victim. “He was sentenced to life, he lost an eye”. The deputy prosecutor also gave his thoughts on the procedural choice in this case to opt for an immediate appearance rather than entrusting the case to an investigating judge. Causing a disability is likely to give rise to a criminal indictment. He then explained that Gaspard O. was facing 10 years in correctional court and even 20 years since he was appearing as a repeat offender. He requested 12 years in prison with a two-thirds security sentence.

Me Abdelghani Merah, who tried several times to calm his client, deplored that the requisitions were on a par with a criminal case although only violent offenses were prosecuted. He deeply regretted that an investigating judge did not take the case. Which would have allowed, according to him, to show that the defendant had not gouged out the eye voluntarily. He also deplored that this case was judged in immediate appearance. After deliberation, Gaspard O. was sentenced to 12 years in prison with a two-thirds security.

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