A 16-year-old boy and girl were sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday by the Pontoise juvenile court (Val-d’Oise) for the murder of Alisha, 14, harassed, beaten and drowned in the Seine in 2021.
After four days of trial behind closed doors, the court reclassified the facts of “murder” as “murder of a 15-year-old minor”, considering “that there did not appear to be sufficiently characterized elements” proving the will “preparatory acts” in view of the girl’s death.
But the teenagers had “full awareness” of the situation and “could not ignore the manifest condition of the victim” who “begged” them, added the president.
“I expected something from the law”
The two defendants, his curly hair squared, her bun and thin glasses, remained silent in the box when the judgment was announced. They were also ordered jointly and severally to pay 180,000 euros in damages for non-pecuniary damage to Alisha’s family.
“It’s not normal, I expected something from the law. They will come out in 10 years. My daughter was killed. They killed my daughter, they threw her in the water,” the victim’s mother shouted in the halls of the courthouse, surrounded by numerous supporters, with closed faces, who wore flocked white T-shirts of the portrait of the teenager and the slogans #JusticeforAlisha, #stopbullying and “I am Alisha”.
The scourge of bullying on social media
Alisha drowned in the Seine on March 8, 2021 after being violently beaten by two of her comrades, who had been harassing her since photos of her in her underwear were posted on Snapchat a few days earlier. The case had aroused great emotion throughout the country and brought to light the scourge of harassment on social networks.
That day, Alisha had found a girl from her class at the foot of the pillars of the A15 motorway viaduct which spans the Seine, on a path away from houses, the prosecutor of Pontoise described shortly after the events. A few minutes later, a boy had approached the victim and “would have given him surprise blows in the face, would have pulled his hair and would have made him a broom making him fall to the ground”, had detailed the magistrate.
Seeking to “eliminate the traces of the violence they had committed”, the two accused minors then grabbed the victim to throw him into the Seine.