Jean-Charles Preira acquitted of the murder of Akhmed M. in Évreux

During an unprecedented judicial epilogue, after six days of debate, Jean-Charles Preira was acquitted for the murder of Akhmed M., in the La Madeleine district, in Évreux, on September 25, 2020. Before the Eure Assize Court, which has just pronounced this verdict, 20 years of criminal imprisonment had been requested against this 31-year-old man by the attorneys general, Rémi Coutin and Anaël Bonton. The judgment was delivered in a packed room, where a large police force was deployed to prevent any outbreak of anger from the Chechen and Manjak communities, who are facing each other in this case. At the end of the debates, Jean-Charles Preira, alleged executive of the “Black Manjak Family”, will be returned to the high security prison of Condé-sur-Sarthe, where he is placed in pre-trial detention in connection with the Mohamed Amra affair.

The facts for which he was tried before the Eure Assize Court, prior to the escape of “La Mouche” in Incarville, were carefully dissected by the parties. For six days, investigators, experts, witnesses to this deadly brawl took the stand. The court also listened to members of the Preira family, those of the M. family and the Chechen community, their stories revealing all the tension that this murder had brought to the heart of La Madeleine, a sensitive neighborhood located on the southern outskirts of Évreux. In the fall of 2020, the fragile balance between the Manjak (originating from Guinea-Bissau) and Chechen communities was shattered. Just after the events, Jean-Charles Preira fled Évreux, then France, to hole up in Malaga, a contract having been placed on his head by those close to Akhmed M..

Subsequently, investigations by the Rouen judicial police made it possible to link Jean-Charles Preira to the murder thanks to telephony, ballistics, and video surveillance of the city, elements whose fragility the defense has continued to blame. On the contrary, she advanced “rumors” from the neighborhood, where only the victim's older brother, Magomed M., claims to have seen Preira shoot his little brother in the fight. “We know that Magomed M. asked a lot of people to go and testify at the police station against Jean-Charles Preira, this is a fact in the case,” insisted during his pleadings Me Frank Berton, one of the three defense lawyers, this Thursday. “When justice goes mad, humanity is lost,” said Beaumarchais. Don't get into this madness. Do not condemn a man of whose guilt you have no proof.”

At the end of the pleadings, the president of the Assize Court, Julie Arzuffi, then asked the accused to stand up in the box. The last word was his. A few meters from the collapsed mother of Akhmed M., Jean-Charles Preira said: “I understand the family’s pain after so many years. But I don’t have to pay for the others.”