Toulouse: prison closed for a couple for the “quasi-lynching of a retiree” in the Toulouse metro
A couple beat up a 77-year-old man in the Toulouse metro on Sunday July 31. Judged Tuesday, August 2, they provided justifications described as “odious” by the prosecution to explain their gesture. They receive prison sentences.
Mohamed did not go to the Toulouse tribunal de grande instance on Tuesday. The old man has not recovered physically and even less psychologically from the “virtual lynching” he suffered according to Me Régis Capdevielle, son lawyer.
On the other hand, the whole family of this 77-year-old retired worker was present in court to attend the trial of his two attackers, a couple living in Béziers who came last weekend to party in Toulouse.
Mohamed had the misfortune to meet them in the metro on his way to the market like every Sunday. Totally drunk, they went after him. “He was staring at me. It was unhealthy. Then I typed it. I overreacted but that’s the way it is, ”says the young woman with an intriguing half-smile.
His companion engages: “He asked her to sit next to her. It is from there that the blows left. It’s true, I slapped him twice, I shouldn’t have ”, slips in an almost playful tone this big muscular guy. The magistrates and the courtroom seem flabbergasted by such detachment. The president of the court reprimands him, raising her voice: “We have the impression that you are children who have stolen candy. Do you realize the gravity of what you have done? »
“All upset”
The magistrate reads the medical report of the assault. Mohamed, already weakened by a stroke, has his nose broken in several places, his face is deformed by the blows. The psychological maintenance is even more terrible. He literally collapsed in front of his family when the facts were first brought up. “He is a proud man who does not express his weaknesses. Seeing him in this state, it upset us all, ”says Anne, his daughter-in-law.
The prosecutor, rather on the reserve during the debates, is without pity in his requisitions: “Your explanations are odious. What emerges from your remarks is that he sought it out. It’s intolerable ! He asks the court to sentence the young man to 18 months, 12 of which are suspended, and his company to 18 months, 6 of which are suspended, because they have already been sentenced for similar acts barely a year ago. “My client was traumatized by a rape. She comes from a social background where it is difficult to access therapists, it is something that haunts her, ”explains the lawyer for the young woman in her argument. The defendant was sentenced to two years in prison, one of which was suspended. She remains in detention. His companion receives the sentence requested by the representative of the public prosecutor. The firm part will be carried out under an electronic placement (bracelet).