For the last pleadings of the defense at the trial of the Nice attack, the court heard this Friday, December 9 the advice of Chokri Chafroud, friend of the killer of the Promenade des Anglais. If the prosecution requested 15 years, his lawyers pleaded acquittal due to ” empty ” folder.
With our special correspondent at the Paris courthouse, Laura Martel
Against this 43-year-old Tunisian, friend of the killer of the Promenade des Anglais, the prosecution requested 15 years in prison for terrorist criminal association. His lawyers pleaded acquittal.
Like a two-voiced cannon, their tone differs, but the message is the same: “ You have to pay Chokri Chafroud “. With ardor and conviction, his lawyers are busy demonstrating what they consider to be the void in the file. From a possible search for a weapon, which there is nothing to support, to this passage on the Promenade des Anglais aboard the truck, of which the investigators themselves say that ” it wasn’t a scout recall the advice.
As for these rude and violent messages exchanged with the future killer, in which Chokri Chafroud evokes several times a truck, “ they are not operational messages. Nowhere does it say to kill people “Is offended Me Arnou. Lawyers do not rule out that these mentions of trucks have ” had an echo » in the spirit of Lahouaiej Boulhel.
” Chokri has been in detention for 6 years »
But did Chorki Chafroud have to “ to be a diviner of a radicalization of which one is not even sure and that the other members of the entourage have not seen either? “, protests Me Arnou. Both councils believe the killer was “ mad “, but ” it’s just an opinion “, points out Me François-Jacquemin. And ” that’s not why we’re asking for an acquittal “, but because ” Chokri has been in detention for 6 years, because the other wrote something wrong! »
Because, at the heart of the investigation, recalls the lawyer, there is this SMS sent at 10:27 p.m. on July 14. The killer asks for five pistols for “Chokri and his friends” and specifies: ” They are ready for next month “. ” We believed in another attack, but we investigated. There is no planned attack, there is no “Chokri and his friends“, it’s wrong ! “, insists Me François Jacquemin.
And his colleague to conclude: Here’s the accusation: when you take the blinders off, it goes down. It is out of the question that Chokri Chafroud is the expiatory victim of this trial. He did not do anything. After the last words of the defendants on Monday, the verdict is expected on Tuesday, December 13.
►Also read: At the trial of the Nice attack, the floor for the defense