Sandrine Prioul / Credits: MAGALI COHEN / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
After the death of a Nantes supporter on Saturday evening on the sidelines of the Nantes-OGC Nice match, two VTC drivers were indicted, one of them for intentional homicide and extortion with a weapon. And the progress of the investigation, and in particular the discovery of a video of the attack, calls into question the version of the alleged perpetrator.
There is the story as it was told by the protagonists: the start of a brawl on the sidelines of the Nantes-Nice match and Nantes supporters who attack a convoy of VTC transporting Nice supporters. One of the drivers then defended himself and fatally stabbed the victim. Except that this version of the facts is contradicted by the video. The alleged perpetrator of the stabbing would even have benefited from complicity.
“The Nantes supporter gets up and tries to flee”
This is an essential element which shed light on the entire investigation. An on-board camera inside one of the VTCs extensively filmed this horde of Nantes supporters rushing into the cars and a recording was found at one of the drivers. The latter contradicts the version of the alleged culprit, explains prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul. For him, the driver was obviously not trying to defend himself.
“In these images, the alleged perpetrator is struggling with several Nantes supporters. He has in his hand a ceramic knife which was in the storage compartment of his vehicle,” explains the public prosecutor at the microphone of Europe 1. “At one point, he pushes away an individual who falls to the ground and that’s when he first stabs him in the back. This Nantes supporter gets up and tries to flee. He is then struck by ‘a second stab’. A weapon which has not yet been found. But the prosecutor insists, the investigations will continue, in particular to find out how these supporters were able to set up what looks like an incredible ambush.