three men tried at the Paris Assizes after two ambushes considered homophobic

Two young men are suspected of having kidnapped, stolen and extorted with a weapon two other men, in January 2022, after an appointment made on a homosexual dating site. A third is suspected of having helped and given directions.

It all started with an exchange on the homosexual dating site Les Pompeurs. On January 22, 2022, early in the afternoon, Paul* arranged a meeting with another man, registered under the pseudonym Eliasse9. It is appropriate to leave the door to your apartment open and wait for your visitor naked in the dark. But a few hours later, it was a man carrying a pistol, his face hidden under a hood, who approached him. He demands money. Paul resists. The attacker struck him with a rifle butt to the back of the head and put his arm around his neck. Paul then agrees to hand over his wallet and his bank card, according to the information collected by the investigators, to which franceinfo had access.

A second man joins the first attacker. Together, they steal Paul’s cell phone, his video game console, his computer, his tablet and his jewelry. Then, they fled, after tying Paul’s hands and feet with adhesive tape. The victim manages to free himself and go to the police station, where he files a complaint. He denounced, during his complaint as well as during his hearing during the investigation, mockery and insults linked to his homosexuality.

The scenario repeats itself at Stéphane*’s house, on January 26, 2022, around 5 a.m. Again, all valuables are stolen. This time, the first attacker threatens him with a knife and, according to Stéphane, declares: “If you scream, if you call for help, I’ll crash you.” He films and photographs him in order to buy his silence, on the orders of the second attacker. He arrived on site several hours later. The two attackers then communicate by telephone and on Snapchat with a third man, who gives instructions and advice for making transfers from Stéphane’s bank accounts.

The sequestration lasts 48 hours in total, during which Stéphane assures that his attackers do so “feel guilty about one’s sexual practices”, ask him questions about homosexuals, make fun of him and insult him. Taking advantage of a moment of inattention on the part of his captors, he managed to alert a friend by email, who informed the police. The police went to Stéphane’s home and arrested the two attackers in flagrante delicto. They are immediately taken into custody. Guillaume N. and Karim B. were identified, then indicted and placed in pre-trial detention two days later.

The third accused was not identified until December 2022. He is Guy N., an Ivorian aged 22 at the time, who admits to having exchanged on Snapchat with Karim B. at the beginning of the year on sums of money, but denies having knowledge of the sequestration and being at the head of banking operations. He claims to have been “attracted by the lure of gain”. At the end of his police custody, like Guillaume N. and Karim B., he was nevertheless indicted and placed in pre-trial detention for extortion with weapons, theft and kidnapping by an organized gang and on grounds of sexual orientation. Charges for which the three men were referred, Tuesday, May 28, to the Paris Assize Court.

If the two youngest accused, aged 18 and 19 at the time of the facts, initially denied any violent behavior towards Paul and Stéphane, when confronted with them in the investigating judge’s office, they ultimately recognized the blow with the butt of a pistol, the strangulation and the threats. “Our client recognizes the vast majority of the facts: the organized nature, the use of a weapon, extortion and kidnapping. He apologized to the civil parties throughout the procedure and will once again express his sincere regrets at the hearing”Karim B’s two lawyers tell franceinfo.

On the other hand, Karim B. contests the homophobic nature, which constitutes an aggravating circumstance. “The quality of the victims did not motivate the act: the only motive was greed.” assures Valentin Guégan, who defends, alongside Karim Morand-Lahouazi, the young man. Jennifer Cambla, Guillaume N.’s lawyer also contests the formula of “homophobic ambush”. The lawyers point out that the two men, like Guy N., face life imprisonment, regardless of the homophobic nature, but due to the extortion committed with weapons and in an organized gang.

At the end of their investigations, however, the investigators are convinced that Karim B. and Guillaume N. “deliberately chose to seek out victims because of their homosexuality”. In fact, the accused highlight the choice of these victims “because they were men and they could not attack women”, “homosexual people were, according to their own statements, less suspicious of the modus operandi”. “I couldn’t have done that to a woman and a straight guy. I couldn’t have gone into his house like I did to the gays,” declared Guillaume N. during an interrogation.

“The whole debate is there: a crime can be considered homophobic even if there is no homophobic hatred. But we can demonstrate that victims are targeted because they are homosexual”, insists to franceinfo Jean-Baptiste Boué-Diacquenod, lawyer for Stop homophobia. The association has become a civil party and intervenes at the request of the victims, to assist them and support the homophobic nature of the attacks. The lawyer recalls that six days of trial in this type of case, before an assize court and not a criminal court, is “fairly unusual”. And underlines: “Given the proliferation of homosexual ambushes, it is important to be able to bring the perpetrators before a court.”

*The first names have been changed at the request of the victims.