Two minors indicted for murder were placed in pre-trial detention on Wednesday April 10 after the death of Shemseddine, 15, beaten to death last Thursday in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne), the Evry prosecutor’s office announced in a press release .
“My client accepts and understands his placement in pre-trial detention,” Arnaud Simonard, who defends one of the minors, told Agence France-Presse, “totally devastated and overwhelmed by this tragedy.” Me Simonard also expressed his “incomprehension” regarding the charge of assassination “which presupposes homicidal intent and premeditation” and which he considers “completely out of step with the reality of the case”. “This is obviously a tragic case of fatal blows, that is to say violence which led to death but without the intention of causing it,” said the lawyer.
Me Jacques Bourdais, who defends the other teenager, aged 17, did not wish to react at the end of the hearing before the judge of freedoms and detention.
In total, four young men, including two brothers, are indicted for murder: among them, an adult and a minor were imprisoned during the night from Sunday to Monday. The two other minors had “requested time to prepare their defense,” said the prosecution, which had requested their placement in pre-trial detention.
“Horror crimes”
The funeral of “Shems”, as his friends called him, took place on Tuesday, in Essonne, in the presence of dozens of his relatives and residents of Viry-Châtillon. The death of the teenager, beaten to death near his college two days after another violent attack which targeted a schoolgirl in Montpellier, caused turmoil throughout the country.
According to the first elements of the investigation and the statements of the accused, cited by the public prosecutor of Evry, Grégoire Dulin, the two brothers had ordered several boys, including the victim, to stop their correspondence with their sister, notably “on matters relating to sexuality”, “fearing for their reputation and that of their family”.
The 15-year-old girl was indicted for willfully failing to prevent a crime. “There are no honor killings”, reacted Tuesday the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, to the National Assembly, “there are only horror crimes”.
