Assassination of Samy Verdier near Toulouse: 25 years in prison for the two accused
While the Advocate General had requested 30 years of criminal imprisonment against the alleged assassins of Samy Verdier, during a settlement of accounts, on February 21, 2019 in Colomiers, the Assize Court sentenced the two men to 25 years in prison. jail.
“A catastrophic case”. “A thick file which is far from being clear”. This Thursday afternoon, June 30, on the fourth and last day of the trial of Youssef Varela de Barros, 28, known as “Ursaf”, and Aboubeker Berchame, 27, known as “Boobs”, before the Assize Court of Haute -Garonne, the floor was given to the three defense lawyers.
After the Advocate General requested 30 years of criminal imprisonment against the two accused, Mes Jacques Derieux, Alexandre Parra-Bruguière and Alexandre Martin did everything to dismantle the prosecution’s case in this settling of scores which occurred on February 21, 2019 in Colomiers, during the course Samy Verdier, 23, lost his life, shot in the back as he escaped.
The shadow of the fifth man
Apart from the defendants, the victim and his brother Mehdi, was there a fifth man that evening? The Advocate General dismissed it. The defense lawyers pleaded the doubt, with meticulousness. “It has existed from the beginning in the minds of investigators and at this bar”, a summary of Me Parra-Bruguière. “We are telling you truths, a late Me Derieux. From a hypothesis, on makes a conviction and on tries to make a proof of it. Justice is not a scenario, it is a file. We are talking about a contract on the head of Samy Verdier. We have no proof. »
“When we organize assassinations in Toulouse, we bring people from elsewhere,” said his colleague. For Me Martin, “it is a tragic file” but also “a disaster” in the way it was set up.
The three lawyers pleaded acquittal for the assassination and asked the court to convict the two defendants only for criminal association since, that evening, they planned to go “coring” dealers with the Verdier brothers. .
The defendants were sentenced this Thursday, shortly before midnight, to 25 years’ imprisonment for the assassination, a sentence below the requisitions of the Advocate General in a case where gray areas persist.