Murder of Jawad in Compiègne: mother and daughter in custody
Myriam Zemrak, 33, and her daughter Kahyna, 18, have been remanded in custody following the death of Jawad, 42, who was beaten to death on 15 August in Compiègne.
Remand in custody for mother and daughter following Jawad's death in Compiègne
According to Google News FR — Crime (fr), three people have been remanded in custody following the murder of Jawad, 42, a temporary worker who died in hospital on 16 August, the day after a fatal beating that took place at square Blaise-Pascal in Compiègne in the early hours of Saturday 15 August.
Among those implicated are Myriam Zemrak, 33, a sales assistant at H&M on rue Solferino in Compiègne town centre, her daughter Kahyna, 18, and a 20-year-old man whose identity has not been disclosed.
Account from a neighbour
A resident of the same building, the Les Vanneaux tower, described the scene from her window. "The victim, whom I don't know, but who came regularly to Myriam's place, was complaining, lying in a pool of blood," she testified. Emergency responders revived Jawad on site, using portable equipment to perform X-rays of his body. He died in hospital the following day.
The neighbour said she was woken by screams. "I heard the mother say 'Kahyna, stop,'" she reported. She estimated that four people were surrounding the victim: "two women and two men. I don't know what happened to the fourth."
Charges brought
Myriam Zemrak and the 20-year-old man have been charged with murder committed by a person acting in a state of manifest intoxication. Both have previous convictions, notably for assault whilst intoxicated.
Kahyna, whose criminal record is clean, has been charged with complicity in murder committed by a person acting in a state of manifest intoxication. The three suspects are at this stage presumed innocent.
A neighbourhood exhausted by twelve years of disturbances
According to the neighbour, Myriam Zemrak has lived in the tower for twelve years. "She's been here for twelve years, and for twelve years people have been warning her about her addictions, particularly to alcohol," she said. The mother reportedly underwent a detoxification programme and temporarily lost custody of her children because of these problems.
Having grown up in a children's home, Kahyna had returned to live with her mother for nearly a year after reaching adulthood. On the weekend of the incident, Myriam Zemrak also had custody of another of her daughters, a younger one, whose father came to collect her before the arrest.
According to the neighbour, police first took the 20-year-old man and Kahyna to the police station, before returning to collect Myriam Zemrak, who had returned to her flat in the meantime.
Complaints about noise nuisance were recurring in the building, according to several residents. "Even on the first floor, people were suffering," one of them said. The building caretaker had intervened without result. The neighbour also mentioned violence perpetrated by Myriam Zemrak against a resident of the seventh floor, and a previous period under electronic monitoring.
Doubts over the defence version
When asked about the hypothesis of a settling of scores triggered by an assault on Kahyna — a line of inquiry that might have explained the beating — the neighbour remained sceptical. "If that's true, there's the justice system for that," she conceded. "But for me, it's part of their defence. I saw them talking separately while the emergency responders were reviving the victim. Maybe they were getting their story straight."
Source: Google News FR — Crime (fr)