The two young men suspected of having killed an Afghan refugee against the backdrop of an urban rodeo have been taken into custody.
The two main suspects in the case of the Afghan refugee shot dead on August 14 in Colmar, eastern France, were charged with murder on Friday and remanded in custody, the public prosecutor announced.
The two young people aged 17 and 18 were also charged with breaches of weapons legislation “in this case an automatic pistol, in a meeting”, said the magistrate, Catherine Sorita-Minard, in a press release.
At this stage of the investigation, “serious or concordant indications” exist to consider that they are the “co-authors” of this assassination, and not author and accomplice, as had been initially advanced, the information court to “determine more precisely the role of each and whether other people are involved”.
The adult incurs life imprisonment while, for the minor, the maximum sentence may not exceed 30 years.
Still according to the prosecutor, the two young men, who “have a significant criminal record despite their young age”, had already been imprisoned by decision of the juvenile court.
Their run had lasted for almost ten days until their arrest Tuesday in the middle of the day in Sarcelles, a popular city north of Paris, for the first, and in Colmar, the following night, for the second.
Visiting friends in Colmar on August 14, Abdul Quayyeem Ahmadzai, a 27-year-old Afghan refugee, in France since 2017, was killed by a bullet in the chest. A “straight shot”, “in front”, detailed the magistrate, in a press release.
Bothered by the noise of a scooter while he was in the company of friends, he had asked the driver to move away. The latter had then insulted him before returning with other people. A brawl broke out between the two groups and a shot was fired.
The Afghan boy died of his injuries in hospital the following night. The autopsy confirmed that he had been hit by a single bullet.
Employed in a car factory in Mulhouse, in the East, he was unknown to the police, had a wife and four young children who remained in Afghanistan, according to his friends.