This Friday evening, September 16, the benches of the Assize Court of Isère are full. The family of Redouane Fellague – stabbed to death in 2016 in Fontaines – and his friends are there to hear the verdict after two days of trial. In the dock, Yusuf Simsek, his head bowed. The verdict falls, he is found guilty of “battery causing death without intention to give it”. He is sentenced to 15 years in prison. The Advocate General had requested a sentence of 18 years of criminal imprisonment and a socio-judicial follow-up of three years accompanied by a treatment order.
“We killed my brother a second time” – Hadjira Fellague
A sentence that does not satisfy the victim’s sister, Hadjira Fellague: “My brother was killed a second time. He aimed for the heart but it is not enough for justice, he is not considered a murderer”, she says with a lump in her throat. She collapses.
An understandable anger and sadness for his lawyer, Maître Dreyfus: “The fact that this family is told that three stab wounds, one of which is planted in the heart, is not a homicide, it is difficult to understand and it generates reactions such as indignation and revolt.” However, he acknowledges that the penalty is “the height of the seriousness of the consequences”. On the defense side, the lawyers are just as satisfied with the 15-year sentence and even more with the reclassification of the facts. “The assize court considered that he had no intention of killing. Symbolically for our client it is something very important“, assures Maître Levy-Soussan.
The defendant’s defense decided not to appeal.