“You can speak freely”: witnesses won over by fear at the trial of the assassination of Amine Kessaci’s brother

In Aix-en-Provence, the Bouches du Rhône Assize Court has been trying for almost two weeks now, five men accused of a triple murder against the backdrop of a war between drug traffickers; drug trafficking. He spoke on Wednesday, explaining that he was not there for "revenge" but for "justice" but at the hearing, fear sets in and many witnesses prefer to remain silent.

“Who wouldn't be afraid here?” asks one of the witnesses, pressed for questions on the stand. An ex-girlfriend of an accused is to be brought in by force this morning, after being reported pale. Another testifies but from a distance and she repeats that she remembers nothing. However, she had spoken to investigators about her companion at the time, a man nicknamed the butcher, accused of having cut up one of the bodies. “He was extremely violent with you,” recalls the president. The young woman had been dragged by her hair, beaten, and put in a trunk. At the hearing, she cries, but repeats that she does not remember.

“A paralyzing fear”

The heavy climate that reigns in the room reflects the horror of this affair explains Me Pierre Olivier Sur, the lawyer of Amine Kessaci, the little brother of one of the victims. "We had one of the fathers of one of the victims who came and said: 'They killed my son, they burned him, but why did they dismember him?' When we hear things like that in a criminal court, we understand that all of us who have a shudder, an absolute fear, well, this fear turns into a paralyzing fear for those who were able to witness it at the time."

“You can speak freely”, tries the president of the Assize Court, to reassure a witness but at the stand, it is amnesia which prevails while in the box, Amine Oualane, suspected of being one of the leaders of the DZ mafia, does not take his eyes off the witnesses.