The former deputy of La République en Marche (LRM) M’jid El Guerrab was sentenced on appeal, Wednesday October 18, in Paris to one year in prison and two years of ineligibility, for having attacked the former Socialist leader Boris Faure in front of a Parisian café. The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence handed down in May 2022 by the judicial court against the former majority elected official: three years’ imprisonment, one of which is fixed, under home detention under an electronic bracelet, and an additional sentence of two years of ineligibility.
Aged 40, Mr. El Guerrab will also have to pay 2,520 euros for a medical assessment which will assess the after-effects suffered by Boris Faure after his head trauma. He must also record a provision of 15,000 euros for damages, the final amount of which will be fixed later.
M’jid El Guerrab appealed this decision, considering that the ineligibility which had been imposed on him was not justified, the facts judged having occurred “in a private context, which have little to do with his political mandate,” his lawyer, Antoine Vey, told Agence France-Presse. On August 30, 2017, an altercation broke out between the LRM deputy for French people abroad and the one who was then first secretary of the federation of French people abroad of the Socialist Party (PS), in front of a café in the 5th arrondissement of Paris .
Two blows to the head from a scooter helmet
A dispute has existed between the two men since M’jid El Guerrab chose to leave the PS to seek the nomination of Emmanuel Macron’s party in the 2017 legislative elections. He was elected in the 9th constituency of French people living abroad, which covers the Maghreb and part of West Africa. The tone rose quickly between the two men and the deputy hit Boris Faure twice on the head with a scooter helmet.
Suffering from head trauma and a brain hemorrhage, Mr. Faure had emergency surgery and spent three days in intensive care, before being hospitalized again a few days later. His days were at one time in danger.
Faced with the outcry caused by the affair, M’jid El Guerrab resigned from the presidential party in September 2017, while retaining his parliamentary mandate. He then joined the Agir ensemble group.