The special chamber for minors confirmed on appeal on Tuesday the 15-year prison sentence of a teenager, aged 14 at the time of the events, for the murder in June 2021 of a schoolboy of the same age, stabbed after a dispute . The decision was rendered in open court, after 1h30 of deliberation, but the trial was held behind closed doors over two days. The accused, in a black jacket, was kept in detention. He faced a maximum sentence of 20 years, the law providing for minors an excuse of minority.
“We feel immense relief”
The special chamber for minors of the Reims Court of Appeal confirmed the entire judgment rendered at first instance on July 1, both at the criminal and civil levels. “These two days have been dreadful. We are now going to set up an association so that the name of Eloi-An resonates”, reacted the mother of the victim, who collapsed in the arms of his lawyer at the end of the hearing. “We feel an immense relief. These two days, we lived them with a lot of suffering, which comes on top of that which we endure every day”, declared his father.
The sentence is accompanied by a seven-year socio-judicial follow-up and a treatment order. Opposed by a dispute for several days, the two college students, educated in a private establishment, found themselves in the center of Reims at the end of classes on June 2, 2021. The respondent, who was holding an already unfolded knife, had lunged at his comrade, punching him and stabbing him in the temple. The victim, adopted as a child at the age of three, died on August 21 at Reims hospital without regaining consciousness.
A rap clip at the origin of the incident?
The scene had been filmed by the camera of a nearby store but also by a schoolgirl who came to watch the confrontation with a small group of students. A rap clip, created and posted on Instagram by the accused, seems to be at the origin of the tension between the two young people. We see the future aggressor putting himself in the spotlight by playing with his knife, which would have provoked mockery among the college students. The accused, who had previously been removed from a public establishment following a fight, would have experienced several situations of harassment since primary school.