eight young people sentenced to up to eight years in prison

The schoolboy was violently attacked with a hammer in the 15th arrondissement of the capital in January 2021.

Eight young people were sentenced to sentences of up to eight years of criminal imprisonment by the juvenile court on Thursday, December 21 in Paris, for their involvement in the violent attack on young Yuriy in 2021.

The heaviest sentence was imposed on a 21-year-old young man, an adult at the time of the events, found guilty of attempted murder for having struck the teenager’s head with a hammer. The only accused to appear in the box, in pre-trial detention, he admitted to having struck, but denied having intended to kill. The seven other defendants received sentences ranging from eighteen months suspended to five years in prison, three of which were closed.

“An attempted homicide”, according to Yuriy’s lawyer

Yuriy, a French schoolboy born in Ukraine, who was preparing to celebrate his 15th birthday, was beaten on January 15, 2021 on the Beaugrenelle slab, the converted roof of a shopping center in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. The video of his attack, which went viral, caused a stir and shone the spotlight on the phenomenon of violence between rival gangs in the capital.

These images, lasting around twenty seconds, showed around ten young people attacking Yuriy, then on the ground, with kicks, crutches and hammers, before abandoning him on the slab. Yuriy was taken to hospital in serious condition, with his life threatening. “I am delighted that the Assize Court judged the facts for what they were, an attempted homicide”reacted after the verdict was announced by Me Francis Szpiner, lawyer for the victim and her family, while the attorney general had requested a reclassification of the facts as aggravated violence for two of them.