Last day of trial, in Nîmes, this Tuesday, September 20, for the alleged assassin of the young man of 22 years and his accomplice.
The trial of Youssef El Madany and Nohame Jarnouj ends today before the Assize Court. Since Thursday, September 15, the two men have been brought before the criminal court for their alleged involvement in the death of Ismaël, killed on May 21, 2018 by a bullet in the neck in front of his parents’ home in Jonquières-Saint-Vincent.
The 30-year-old Beaucairois Youssef El Madany is accused of having coldly murdered with a weapon of war – an 1892 revolver caliber 8 mm – the 22-year-old young man in fragile health since a stroke. The second, Nohame Jarnouj, a 32-year-old Montpellier resident, is brought before the Assize Court for having supported and assisted El Madany on his run to enable him to escape justice.
A defense undermined by the experts
On Monday morning, the forensic and ballistics experts appeared on the stand. During their deposition, the two learned men methodically dismantled the evolving arguments put forward in defense by the main defendant. In his successive depositions, El Madamny claimed in particular to have been forced, on the evening of the tragedy, to carry out a “response fire”, after being shot and wounded by Ishmael’s brothers who had just given him a lookout. apens…
“The respondent mentioned a gunshot wound to the right groin relatively late in the proceedings. Moreover, it does not appear in the report written by my colleague brought to examine it in the wake of his arrest after 17 days on the run.“, notes at the bar Dr. Mounir Benslima, who was responsible for carrying out the autopsy of Ishmael who succumbed, according to the expert, to a craniocerebral hemorrhage. “While Ishmael was preparing to flee and posed no threat to you“, observes the president of the court.
At the helm in turn, ballistics expert Alain Artuso evacuates the theory that El Madany fired on the ground to scare away his alleged ”aggressors”, before the bullet ricocheted to reach Ismael inadvertently. “The expertise of the projectile found in the skull of the victim reveals that the shot was made in a straight line and that it did not encounter any obstacle. Otherwise, its shape would have been deformed by this supposed first impact“, concludes the expert, also overwhelming the defense.
In his requisitions, Advocate General Bertrand Baboulenne requested, moreover based on the expertise of a psychiatrist, 30 years of imprisonment against El Madany and, to everyone’s surprise, the acquittal of Nohame Jarnouj for the crime of complicity of assassination (see opposite). The pleadings continue today before the verdict expected by this evening.
Towards an acquittal of the alleged accomplice in the assassination?
Prosecuted for complicity in murder, Noham Jarnouj incurs life imprisonment in this case like Youssef El Madany. Yesterday, at the beginning of the afternoon, the Advocate General however asked the court to acquit him of this crime, in strict application of the law. According to Bertrand Baboulenne indeed: “ no objective element comes here to demonstrate that Jarnouj’s active aid and assistance to El Madany started before the commission of the crime. No other element (sms, phone call) comes in addition to the support of a prior agreement on this assistance. Finally, nothing demonstrates that Noham Jarnouj knew the criminal intent of the main accused “, underlined the magistrate who however requested the condemnation of Jarnouj to 5 years of prison for concealment of criminal. Noham Jarnouj effectively helped El Madany escape justice. The materiality of this offense is indisputable here.“concluded the magistrate.