The Hérault criminal court on Thursday sentenced William C., 23, to eight years in prison for fatally mowing down Aymen, 13, during the celebrations following the France-Morocco semi-final of the 2022 World Cup. A verdict greeted with deep disappointment by the teenager’s family.
“The attorney general had proposed 12 years, but unfortunately the court only accepted eight,” reacted Saïd, Aymen’s older brother, at the end of the hearing. For the family, this sentence does not do justice to the seriousness of the tragedy: “It is a pain that is added to that which we already have”, he added, while recognizing that “justice has done its job”.
Illiterate, unemployed and without a driving license
After an hour and a half of deliberation, the court found the young man guilty of “intentional violence with a weapon resulting in death without intention of causing it”, ruling out the theory of self-defense. William C., illiterate, unemployed and without a driving license, faced up to twenty years in prison. “Eight years, for the death of a child, is far too little,” lamented the family’s lawyer, Marc Gallix, who fears that this verdict “will not lead to a form of appeasement, particularly in the Paillade district.”
The drama played out on December 14, 2022, in the jubilation of the French victory against Morocco (2-0). With the tricolor flag hanging on the door of his mother’s car, William C. mingled with the crowd of Moroccan supporters gathered in the Montpellier district of La Mosson. Taken part in, he suddenly drove off, made a U-turn on the tram tracks and hit several people, including Aymen, who was fatally injured.
“I ask for forgiveness”
During the hearing, the young driver repeated that he had “never wanted to do harm”, claiming to have acted out of panic. “I ask for forgiveness, excuse me, forgiveness, forgiveness…” he said, in tears, from his box. An apology considered sincere by the victim’s family: “It won’t bring back our little brother, but it touches us,” admitted Saïd, recalling that the teenager had died “in the arms of [leur] father “.
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In his indictment, Attorney General Robert Bartoletti nevertheless insisted on the full responsibility of the accused: “It is not the fault of bad luck, it is the fault of his behavior”, he stressed, evoking “the absolute drama” of a broken life. For the defense, the judges were able to find “a fair balance between the personality of the accused and the suffering of the civil parties”.
