After nearly three weeks of dense debate, the Advocate General estimated on Thursday that the facts before the court were “at the top of the scale of criminological seriousness”.
Eighteen years in prison were requested, Thursday, September 21, against the rapper MHD, tried before the Paris Assize Court for the murder in 2018 of a young man. The victim had been lynched as part of a settling of scores between rival Parisian gangs. After approximately three weeks of dense debate, the Advocate General, in his submissions, considered that the facts before the court were located “on the high end of the criminological seriousness scale”demanding heavy sentences against seven of the nine accused in this case.
>> Trial of rapper MHD: we summarize the murder case judged at the assizes from Monday
On the night of July 5 to 6, 2018, Loïc K., aged 23, died after being deliberately knocked down by a Mercedes in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, then beaten by around ten men and lacerated with blows. knives. The car was found a day later, burned, in a parking lot.
At the heart of the matter, a settling of scores between young people from the city of Chaufourniers, nicknamed the red city, and the neighboring city of Grange aux Belles, located in the 10th and 19th arrondissements. In this case, several witnesses notably implicated the rapper MHD, whose real name is Mohamed Sylla, originally from Chaufourniers. Investigators established that the burned Mercedes belonged to him and witnesses claimed to have seen him on board.
The rapper denies having been there
Furthermore, one of the videos of the scene, taken by a witness from an apartment, shows an African man with dyed blond hair, wearing a Puma tracksuit. However, at that time, MHD had peroxided hair and was an ambassador for the sportswear brand. Since the beginning of the facts, he has denied having been present at the scene of the crime.
“His position is the rumor that made it easier for the members of the Grange aux Belles group to say ‘it’s definitely him’”observed the Advocate General in his requisitions. “It was not through rumor that Mohamed Sylla’s car was identified as that of the commission of the facts”he added, listing all the evidence which he believes incriminates the rapper.
Thirteen to twenty years required for co-defendants
The representative of the public prosecutor requested thirteen to twenty years of criminal imprisonment for six of his co-accused, including the maximum sentence for one who is on the run and therefore tried in absentia. His DNA was found on a knife found at the crime scene.
On the other hand, the attorney general requested acquittal for two men: one of them, Wissem E., had been exonerated by investigators during the debates. For the other, Moussa K., he considered that he was not “not reasonable” to condemn him in view of the elements put forward in the investigation to incriminate him.
This case was illustrated, throughout the investigations and then the debates at the trial, by the “law of silence” to which the accused, but also numerous witnesses, submitted. A large number of them, although summoned, did not appear in court. A law of silence dictated by “fear of reprisals”by the admission of several people. “This climate of terror, this law of silence, we cannot accept them, you cannot let them win”argued Juliette Chapelle, one of the lawyers for the victim’s family, addressing the court.