five questions about the trial which opens today

A little more than three years have passed, but the emotion remains intact for those close to Philippe Monguillot. This 58-year-old bus driver, who worked in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), was hit by passengers on July 5, 2020. Left brain dead, he succumbed to his injuries after five days in a coma. The circumstances of his death aroused indignation, particularly in the political world with the visit to the site by the Ministers of Transport and the Interior.

Three men are on trial before the Pau Assize Court from Friday September 15. Two of them, Wyssem Manai and Maxime Guyennon, are accused of having given the blows which caused his death. A third man appears free under judicial supervision for having provided accommodation to the two suspects. Franceinfo returns to the issues at stake in this trial, which is to be held until September 21.

1What happened on July 5, 2020?

It is 7:10 p.m., Sunday July 5, 2020, at the heart of the Covid-19 crisis and health restrictions, when police officers went to the Balishon stop of the Bayonne trambus. They noticed a crowd and saw a man on the ground. This is the driver of the vehicle, who is lying in the side safety position. Philippe Monguillot is rushed to hospital: his life is in jeopardy.

Five days later, this bus driver, who had been working for more than thirty years and would turn 59 the following month, succumbed to his injuries. According to elements of the forensic doctor’s report consulted by franceinfo, “The medical cause of death is related to fractured head trauma”who notably created “significant hemorrhagic lesions”.

According to a dozen testimonies collected by investigators, to which franceinfo had access, passengers reported seeing or hearing Philippe Monguillot stop the trambus he was driving to speak to several young men at the back of the vehicle and ask them to get off. , because they were without masks.

The content of the trambus company’s video surveillance images completes the sequence of the scene. Without sound, they parade like a silent film. “At 7:07 p.m., it was noted that, during a discussion between the bus driver and the young man in the cap, the bus driver [lui] delivered a violent headbutt. A fight started between these two men as well as the young man with the ponytail.note the investigators in their report.

They specify that the “fight” continues “at the back of the bus” for one minute and 43 seconds. Then, as they faced each other, “the individual in the cap then delivered a violent punch to the face of the driver, who fell heavily to the ground, hitting him with the back of the head”outside the bus, according to investigators.

2Who are the three accused?

The use of video surveillance tapes made it possible to quickly identify Mohamed Akrafi, a forty-year-old already known to the police. He was referred to the Pau assizes for having provided assistance to his two co-defendants by accommodating them. The day after the incident, the police discovered Wyssem Manai at his home, easily recognizable with his dyed red hair.

This 22-year-old man is from Nîmes (Gard). He has been on vacation in Bayonne for two weeks with a friend of the same age who lives there, Maxime Guyennon, described by investigators as “the young man with the ponytail”. Both men have already been convicted three times. Wyssem Manai for drug trafficking and aggravated theft, Maxime Guyennon for aggravated theft, attempted theft with violence and concealment of property.

On Sunday July 5, 2020, they fled after the fall of Philippe Monguillot. Arrested, they were placed in police custody and then indicted on July 7, 2020. Both were tried for “intentional violence resulting in death without intention to cause it” and not for “aggravated murder”, as the prosecutor’s office in Bayonne.

3What is their version of the facts?

In police custody, then before the investigating judge, Maxime Guyennon admits to having struck two blows, including one to the head of the driver on the ground. He claims that Philippe Monguillot made racist remarks before giving a “headbutt” at Wyssem Manai. The latter admits having “grabbed the driver by the throat” and took him out of the bus before carrying him “two potatoes” in the face, then kicks when he was on the ground and a final punch in the face, without having intended to kill him.

“This single blow caused the fatal fall which subsequently led to deathsupports his lawyer, Thierry Sagardoytho. The young man has always admitted his guilt over this fatal act.” His colleague Frédéric Dutin, who defends the other suspect, declared to AFP a year ago that he would plead for his client “intentional violence without reference to death” because Maxime Guyennon “was not responsible for the fatal punch”.

Wyssem Manai, who initially denied any involvement, later told investigators that he had taken the bus with his friend for the first time, early in the afternoon, to buy a bottle of whiskey. However, during this outward journey, Philippe Monguillot is already at the wheel. “This is not a trivial event”underlines Alexandre Novion, who represents the driver’s wife and daughters.

“Already, we see Philippe Monguillot on the video surveillance images interposing between these two individuals without a ticket and without a mask. This first confrontation leaves traces.”

Alexandre Novion, lawyer for the driver’s family

at franceinfo

And to conclude: “It was from all the violence he suffered that he died, in the ordinary exercise of his profession. We cannot say that it was a fight that went wrong.”

4Why aren’t they being tried for “aggravated murder”?

Two days after the events, the two young men were indicted for “aggravated murder” and placed in pre-trial detention. But on May 16, 2022, at the end of the judicial investigation, the Bayonne investigating judge reclassified the alleged facts as “violence having resulted in death without intention of inflicting it on an agent of a public transport network operator of travelers in the exercise of or as a result of their duties”. The fact that Philippe Monguillot was a person entrusted with a public service mission therefore constitutes an aggravating circumstance.

For his family, the reclassification, which rules out any desire to cause death, sparked “a lot of astonishment”. Their lawyer therefore appealed this decision, as did the Bayonne prosecutor’s office. But four months later, the investigating chamber of the Pau Court of Appeal confirmed the reclassification of the facts. “The accusation of murder is sharply dismissed”greets Wyssem Manai’s lawyer today.

5Why is this trial being held at the assizes?

Initially, the investigating judge had requested the referral of the accused to a departmental criminal court, in this case that of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Composed solely of professional judges, this new jurisdiction has become widespread since the beginning of the year throughout France for the judgment of crimes punishable by 15 to 20 years. For crimes punishable by more than 20 years, the assize courts remain competent.

The Bayonne public prosecutor’s office and the family of Philippe Monguillot appealed this decision. This time, they won their case: the investigating chamber ordered, on September 16, 2022, a trial before an assize court. The decision is notably motivated by the fact that the two main accused were in a state of legal recidivism, due to previous criminal convictions. They therefore face life imprisonment.

This means that the three accused will be judged by three professional magistrates and six jurors, citizens chosen by lot. A decision that satisfies Alexandre Novion. The lawyer emphasizes that the white march, organized on July 8, 2020 in Bayonne by the wife of Philippe Monguillot, sealed “a symbiosis of opinion around his family”. For his part, Thierry Sagardoytho hopes that the assize court “will apply the law, nothing but the law”. “Those who distort the facts, to gain the favor of public opinion, obstruct the work of justice”considers the defense lawyer.