Murder of Thomas at Crépol: eleven defendants committed to trial with racist aggravating circumstance
Eleven young men will be tried at the assize court for the murder of Thomas Perotto, 16 years old, killed at Crépol in 2023, with racist aggravating circumstances.
Eleven defendants before the assize court for the murder of Thomas Perotto
Nearly three years after the death of Thomas Perotto, 16 years old, stabbed during a winter ball at Crépol (Drôme) in the night of 18 to 19 November 2023, French justice has reached a new stage. According to 7sur7 Faits Divers, the investigating judges have just issued their committal order, the final procedural step before the assize trial.
The order, consulted by BFMTV, requires the eleven defendants to answer for the intentional murder of Thomas Perotto and attempted murder of three other victims. The aggravating circumstance retained: statements made against "the white race and the French nation".
Life imprisonment now a possible sentence
This aggravated qualification has direct consequences on the sentences faced. Without this circumstance, the defendants risked thirty years' imprisonment. With it, they now face life imprisonment, as stressed by Me Denis Dreyfus, lawyer for around forty civil parties, to BFMTV.
"We are satisfied. From a legal standpoint, this is what we had argued for," said Me Dreyfus.
The judges thus followed the conclusions of some civil parties' lawyers, who had called for this qualification, and rejected contrary arguments from the defence and the Valence public prosecutor's office.
The "code of silence" at the heart of the investigation
The investigation did not make it possible to determine who struck the fatal blow to Thomas Perotto, nor to specify individual responsibilities in the attempted homicides. The magistrates explicitly mention this in their order: "The 'code of silence' observed by the defendants did not aid in the manifestation of truth."
To overcome this difficulty, the judges retained the legal concept of "single scene of violence", which makes it possible to attribute collectively the murder and attempted murders to all of the defendants, without it being necessary to establish who struck which blow.
Three cases dismissed in part or in full
Of the fourteen persons examined during the investigation for "murder" and "attempted murder in an organised gang", three benefited from a complete or partial dismissal, the charges against them being considered insufficient. One of them will nevertheless be referred to a criminal court for "wilful violence" and "carrying a weapon".
Source: 7sur7 Faits Divers