They are five defendants facing the president, in room 4.02 of the Palais de Justice in Paris. But all these men, aged 25 to 32, do not appear under the same status. Three are seated on the bench in the front row. Free, without handcuffs, without escort. Logan Djian (former boss of Gud, piercing blue eyes and Minotaur shoulders) rubs shoulders with Kléber Vidal and Geoffrey Le Noir, two former members, too, of the far-right group. Two other silhouettes take shape behind a glass box, framed by six hooded police officers. Loïk Le Priol and Romain Bouvier are imprisoned, one in Meaux, the other in Health, in Paris, accused of having killed the former Argentinian rugby player Federico Martin Aramburu, in March, with several bullets in the back. Officially, the time has not come to talk about the murder, the investigation being in progress. Surprisingly, this is also not the time to put the far-right movement on trial, half a century old: the defendants and their defense do everything not to emphasize the violent traditions of the radical movement, which handles the punch more than the concepts.
Torture, beatings and Macarena
The five men – all former members or leaders of the organization – appear because they must answer for “willful violence in assembly” against Edouard Klein, another former leader of the small group, under the threat of a weapon and with premeditation, having led an ITT of more than eight days (in this case, the victim had been sentenced to 12 days off). A torture session during which Etienne Klein’s attackers force him to undress, to dance the Macarena, insult him and beat him. “Do you know that the cut-throat, it goes very quickly?” Le Priol threatens in front of a tearful Etienne Klein, who begs him to stop. The facts, which took place on the night of October 8 to 9, 2015, were not judged until seven years later, after two dismissals.
On paper, the case is not complicated. Four defendants admit having struck blows, a last admits a silent presence. The sequence (“extreme violence”, recalls the prosecutor, aimed at “humiliating, belittling the victim”) was filmed by Loïk Le Priol, and the video revealed in March 2016 on the Mediapart site.
The five men all apologize, using similar formulas. “Abject behavior, unhealthy hysteria, it’s a huge regret” (Loïk Le Priol); “a total and unforgivable loss of control on our part” (Logan Djian); “dysfunctional, sadistic, odious behavior. I’m sincerely ashamed of having done that” (Romain Bouvier); “I can’t explain such a surge of violence, it should never have happened” (Kléber Vidal); “Irrational behavior, followership” (Geoffrey Le Noir).
From “chivalrous duel” to lynching
On the other hand, the question of premeditation is at the heart of the debates. Did the defendants plan to humiliate the victim? They swear that they initially wanted to provoke a simple explanation with Etienne Klein after multiple disagreements, which vary according to the interlocutors (the victim allegedly accused one of the attackers of being “a snitch”, she also allegedly showed violence towards his girlfriends, uttered a hurtful phrase after a car accident, or promoted the use of cocaine in their group of friends). “We needed this flattening, this explanation. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned at all, it went wrong”, tries Loïk Le Priol.
The former member of the special forces, who says he is “war traumatized”, expelled from the army after missions in Africa and the Middle East, has developed a new argument. If he filmed the whole scene, it was neither to humiliate nor to blackmail his former friend, but to attest that the rules of “honor”, in use in the far-right small group, were respected. “What is offered to Mr. Klein is a duel, one against one, a bit old-fashioned, to move on,” he says, far from the images that show the participants beating up a man down. A terrible “slippage” for the participants. Romain Bouvier also mentions “values, French chivalry, the code of honor of the Japanese samurai”, taught according to him by Etienne Klein before their estrangement.
An argument – that of a “chivalrous vision” specific to the GUD -, adopted by the council of Loïk Le Priol, master Xavier Nogueras, during his argument. “In the values of this group, some things seem intolerable. Lies, drug taking and violence against women. The motives are fundamental to understanding and fixing the sentences”, argues the criminal media, which tries to bring down the premeditation in taking over this supposedly romantic reading. “These codes, they exist within the GUD of the time. (…) Because we are in a traditional group, to be a man, to wash away the affront, it took me a long time to understand it.” An argument that master Antoine Vey does not endorse, who, in his defense of Romain Bouvier, chose to insist on “the conditioning” specific to this movement. “It’s a group that has ideas that are violent. (…) They are so violent that they can only have been accomplished in a climate of violence induced in relation to others; a violence that escapes us”, argues the former partner of Éric Dupond-Moretti. In the absence of Edouard Klein, the prosecution demanded five-year prison sentences for all the accused (firm or including three years suspended). The verdict, expected on June 29, will probably not mention the “chivalrous” traditions of the GUD.